Donna Partha – http://donnapartha.tumblr.com/
Chandini
This week we are browsing singer profiles from yet another southern state of India called Karnataka. We picked two female singers of exceptional singing profiles among many we screened: a multifaceted talent and other a great melody singer. Donna Partha and Chandini. We briefly want to cover unique singing styles of various traditional music from this state which you will never see or hear anywhere else in the world. The state is modern with its famous IT hub city of Bangalore, and places like Coorg which is known as the Scotalnd of India. Such is the beauty of the place with a blessed mild weather and places of beautiful landscapes and rich nature. Both the singers of our feature bring a lot of that emotions from this great state of India backed with years of traditions of unique musical heritage.
A singer growing up in any place must show the influences from the music of that region. Music scene of Karnataka also show predominantly south Indian Carnatic music influences (this form is also called Karnataka Sangeeth, which we covered in the last blog in relation to Tamil Nadu). There is conflicting arguments of origins of this form of music and as the name pertains there is high probability that the Karnataka Sangeeth (music) originated here and later spread to other southern states. It is very evident that Carnatic music flourished in this state from time immemorial.
Representative of the South Indian Classical forms of music, the term Carnatic started being used after the Sangita Ratnakara of Sarngadeva during the period of 1210 to 1247. However, it took next two centuries for Carnatic Music to be evolved as we hear it today.
The kingdoms of Vijayanagara and Tanjavur were the main areas which looked after the promotion of this form of music while the royal families of the kingdoms were regarded as the patrons of Carnatic Music.
Many dance forms like Bharathnatyam and Kuchipudi and the music that goes with it are very popular in this state as in Tamil Nadu. But unique forms of music art that this state is known for are Puja Kunitha, Pata Kunitha, Bhootha Aradhane, Nagamandala, Gorava Kunitha, Yakshagana, Togalu Bombeaata and Krishna Parijatha. Of these Yakshagana a form of dance drama and its music stands out with its popularity elsewhere. Great efforts by musicians of this art form and record companies in producing this music for the mass and some of them are used in popular film music led to a rejuvenation of this music. Although we love to go deep into the full details of this music art, we are limited here by the scope of this feature.
Yakshagana – a beautiful tradition from Karnataka
Yakshagana literally means the song (gana) of the yaksha (nature spirits). Traditionally this art form was known as Bayalatta. The following video is one of the beautiful performances which we strongly suggest everyone to watch here and the singer Patla Satish Shetty a phenomenal Yakshagana singer (Tenkutittu style) performing an out of this world singing performance. He at the moment is the most popular Yakshagana singer par excellence.
Again faced with an enormous task of picking the right singers from this state we looked really hard to have people with exceptional talent. We knew these singers before we even knew they were from this state. We are very confident these singers are absolutely the right picks and hope you will be convinced if you listen to their singing.
Donna Partha
Donna absolutely is a multi-faceted singer. First to mention here is her powerful singing and the voice, that made us think of including her in a feature no matter where she is from. When we were working on this feature about the music from Karnataka we did not think of another singer to go with to represent a great state of music traditions. More we came to know her, it become more evident that she is absolutely an outstanding talent destined to make a name in India’s’ film industry. We are sure she going to use her talent in making artful films and going to fame in Bollywood. Donna is a student of National Institute of Design, at Bangalore, specializing in Animation film design. She hail from one of the most beautiful part of the state of Karnataka called Coorg (Kodagu). Her songs bring that breeze of those green pastures where the hum of traditional songs echoes. She shares this link to her beautiful personal web page to show her interests and hobbies. Please visit and encourage this singer in her multi-faceted talents ranging from film production, music direction and photography and the list goes on…. Her singing many times reminds us of the great Kavitha Krishnamurthy who also hail from the state of Karnataka (although she is born elsewhere).
Here let us start with a movie that she produced as part of her curriculum and shared with us. This tops anything we have ever imagined when we started writing this feature. Click the link here to view a movie “Dado” she produced. Dado Movie
DONNA’S MUSIC
This feature it is all about her music talents. She likes all kinds of music, doesn’t matter what language they are written, melodies, good beats, good lyrics, raw earthy songs, especially of AR magic songs. Her favorite singers of film music are Sonu Nigam, Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik, Shreya Ghoshal, Kishore Kumar and Asha Bonsle all top singers of fame. She composes music for her self; experimenting with sounds is her uniqueness. She is a constant learner and enthusiast to explore different singing styles and says music is an inseparable part of her identity. Music is almost a daily routine of her life. Let us hear this super singer from Karnataka on a self collaboration. Donna x 2, absolutely one of her best performances
Here Donna singing a very famous Kishore Kumar song Mere Sapanom Ki Rani in her native Kodagu language (also Coorgi language). The lyrics are written by her dad. AMAZING talent here and great singing.
Rangeela with Abhishek a very nice performance.
Sonu Nigam Kannada Song Beautiful, unfortunately we could not find a good collaboration for this invite, Enjoy this beautiful composition in Donnas own voice. Minchaagi neenu beralu
On her channel we also have seen her with yet another talent. She can play flute beautiful. See for yourself.
And to top everything here she is experimenting with a Charlie Puth song, We don’t talk anymore. Thanks Donna, we haven’t seen anybody as multi-talented as you are. Amazing is the word.
We leave your feature here with a lot of thanks from our heats for being the sport you are. We love singers like you who deserve more than the recognition here and sure you will go places in your career.
A special mention for Chandini
We were sure when approached Chandini for this feature she will be surprised. Here you go her initial response” No way”, such is this singers humility who says she never got a proper training in any form of singing, but amazingly sing so perfect. On Smule Sing she have a very robust number of fan following and within minutes of her collaborations posted entire wall filled with love and affection to this singer. She told that her favorite singers are SP Balasubramoniom, Suresh Wadkar, and Yesudas. Her favorite female singers are Lata Mageshkar and Shreya Goshal. She love to sing older romantic songs of 80 s and 90s. That tells volumes about her as a singer. She may not be good at every genre of songs but there are some songs we found that she sang made her own. She has a very unique voice and tone which will get one addicted to her channel. We picked some songs with her help and we would like to present some of them here for you guys to know this very Karnataka’s’ own locale singer Chandini. She really like to keep her privacy and smule profile separate. Thus we restrict our words about her in just a paragraph and leave her to enjoy her singing.
dil-mein-ho-tum-aankho-mein-tum Beautiful singing by Chandiniji and her favorite genre. ENJOY
Chandini singing a Kannada song Usiraguve
From the bottom of the heart we like to express our thanks for this singer Chandiniji for her willingness to be on our feature. You keep singing, you are an amazing singer. All the best and a big expression of symbol universal love from SIB team.
LYRICS MEANING – HINDI
We like to stop here leaving you all with this beautiful Hindi song from a recent movie.
The great India Singers on Smule Sing 