When we came to know more about two great singers from Gujarat, Nikita Patel and Vijal Shah influenced by the music from the State, it triggered our interest to do some digging into Gujarati Pop music. More to it, we wanted to see the chances of young singers from this region to be successful locally and then nationally.
Our survey includes hours of listening to the most popular singers and our picks are based on their web presence or comments elsewhere about these singers about a career in music. There is very little or no information on most of the singers. Their music and popularity on YouTube play is the most important aspect in deciding these singers.
Here is the list of singers that we found the most interesting from this region who seems to be popular and reap success in music videos. Generally, the catchy drum beats unique to this state remained the main rhythm of many songs akin to the heartbeat of the land. Female singers excel in their subject selection and presentation for a wider audience in mind. The use of traditional Dhandiya style as the base and the beat of the drums magically can convey a range of emotions starting from upbeat moods to sadness is typical. There are singer groups who can bring variations of the drum beats very effectively and that seems to be a noticeable character.
The recent hit number Chogada, Bollywood music is the very evidence of influences of Gujarati folk in India’s music industry. Give a listen for sure, sure it will get you out of your seats and dance.
Before going into modern times, it will be a crime not to write a few lines about the history of Dhandiya and Garba dances and the associated music. The state’s royal families historically were big proponents of good music. Although Ustad Faiaz khan was from Delhi and Agra gharana, he was honored and lived in Baroda king’s court as a court musician of the Maharaja of Baroda.
The drumbeat of Garba and Dhandia music is like the heartbeat in your chest. The heart beats fast when something good or bad happens. The emotions that run during either state are definitely not the same. The use of props like dhol (drums) and the click of dhandiya (sticks),diya (small lights) are such beautiful symbolic representations coming from so profoundly thoughtful use of props for various expressions of music from nature. The beauty of this form of dance and music is so universal, anybody can relate to this. One can see in Gujarati pop the deep roots of human nature to express through various day-to-day items of their lifestyles.
The count down here is from old school singers to the most recent popular singers. In popularity, some of the young musicians outnumber the old school guys; to show some respect for the established singers, who may not have an agenda like tech-savvy young singers, we are starting with an old school singer as the first pick and he is
A playback singer by profession who is known for his soulful singing and is nationally known for his huge success in the Gujarati music industry. Born into a musically inclined family to a famous mother, Shrimathi Uma Oza, who was an accomplished Hindustani classical vocalist of her period. Sanjay emerged into the music field through Gujarati playback singing big time supported by his proponent Gaurang Vyas (music director). He kept his leading role in Gujarat being very open to accepting the changes in the music industry. He has a Facebook presence and his recent concentration on Gujrati light music made his relevance still in this field a very strong one.
Sanjay Oza
Here we add one representative song that shows his singing characteristics. He is placed at position number last. His heart is in the unmatched beauty of the traditional styles of Gujarati folk and one hundred percent being a Gujarati at his heart. Enjoy this. One gets to see all the props and dance styles we described in the introduction. A traditional Indian music instrument called Harmonium can also be seen in this video. Play it for sure.
Parth Chaudhary
Parth Chaudhary is here for reasons that he occupies a very different niche in competition to other young Gujrati singers on YouTube; a few characteristics are his simplicity in singing style and use of strong symbolism in his music videos. His Goma Nu Dil is a chartbuster in the local Gujarati music scene took him to our pick on the top list here.
Now the top four countdowns. Personally, Geetaben Rabari is our favorite here; but as we said we are counting the numbers. Yet Geeta with her powerful voice and the folk touch voice we think is poised to make it big nationally elsewhere. Again once more our favorite pick, with an “A” grade for her powerful voice and beautiful folk touch, she is definitely is a singer that brings the heart of the land. In this modern age, singers like her is hard to come by. The beautiful tone of her high-pitched voice, with all that power, is addictive to listen to. One may find the recent news and YouTube video in which on Geeta’s stage performance someone showering her with money out of respect for her singing. Here listen to this sensational folk singer from Gujarat and witness the magic of her music. Huge respect for those people who love good music.
Vijay Suvada takes this position here at third for his voice quality. Among young singers, his voice stands out with such authority that we put him in this position. He is constantly listed as the top singer for TOIs Gujarati play-back review write-ups. This is due to his huge success in singing some of the recent popular Gujrati movie songs. He is hugely popular as a singer whose voice fits the playback industry’s lead actors as well. His Lago Jabara of 2018 is here enjoy.
JIGNESH KAVIRAJ
Jignesh is our topmost pick among male folks with a very successful play-back singing career in the Gujarat music industry. Jignesh comes from a strong music background family with his dad being a singer too (bhajans). Jignesh’s voice with a great texture and folk touch is what makes him outstanding from the rest of the crowd. His 2018 success is here.
KINJAL DAVE SECOND TO NONE
Kinjal Dave is interviewed by TOI corespondent for the right reasons from a vast number of young Gujarati singers. Her presence on National scene and her popularity else where is unmistakable. Apart from Geeta who also promote the Gujarati folk, Kinjal is at the other spectrum of singing career. She is modern, her foot print on web makes it more easy for fans to know her up-close and personal. Predictions are she is the singer from Gujarat to look for in the coming years whose entry into the Bollywood scene is highly anticipated. She is absolutely the best.
Sachin and Jigar
Lastly Saibo music directors. If we go with out mentioning these two musicians from Gujarat who made fame in Bollywood big time. Although there are a number of other success songs to their credit we want to highlight Saibo, a beautiful Gujarati song they made. The lyrics of this song is very high quality poetry (see below the Hindi version from the Hindi movie Shor in the city). Sachin and Jigger, despite their recent controversial allegations, are musicians who came from a Gujarti basis and made it big in the national scene.
Aishwarya Majumdar
Few other places we found that Aishwarya is a top young sensation on Gujarati music scene. We are adding this section after our initial publication when few of the readers send this to us. Although she is not very folk touch singer, we thought her web presence is obvious. Hear her song here.
END NOTES
Before we wind up this discussion, we want to add this movie song from far south in Tamil Nadu to illustrate how the influence of Gujarat’s music is catching up other regional language movie songs.
Definitely the young musicians who can realize the power of traditions and customs, found ways to strew their modern influences and make their own interpretations of the traditional music. Vijal and Nikita, our past featured artists from Gujarat, show how these youngsters despite they live elsewhere are still excited and influenced by their traditions. Please go read their features here, Vijal Shah and Nikita Patel.
A warm wishes for a great relaxed weekend and singing on Smule. Thanks friends for reading along. Great have you all folks here.
We are back this week with a fantastic singer Nikita Pate in our young singer series. Her profile have such an impact on Smule, we never could be more happier to have Nikita featured here. She is more commonly known as Nikki. She represents the great state of Gujarat and she is a singer who says that she is absolutely proud to be representing her state. Nikita was noticed when we have her followers wrote to us suggesting for a feature. Talking about her followers on Smule Nikita is a class apart with more than 100K followers on her Smule profile. We noticed and picked her for a feature because of certain other reasons than large followership.
Her profile represents a modern new style of singing in the music field. It is somewhat like the movement of singers like Saade and her genre of musicians bring to western music filed. It is smooth, slow, rhythmic unwind music that get into one’s veins slowly and steadily. Nikita is the leader of this revolution on Smule. She bring a bunch of singers into her collaborations that amazingly make a very special atmosphere in her singing. Nikita very artistically strew some of her personality into her music. Her another amazing ability is her techniques to harmonize with others and create some magic in her singing.
Contacting Niki was facilitated by a common friend none other than the very talented Vijal Shah (please click the link to read about Vijal and her music), and Nikita’s best friend, a friendship story started through Smule. Thanks to Vijal for doing this, totally worth knowing. Arranged to meet with Niki on a chat line during the Christmas Holidays, still Niki as always telling that she is busy, remained busy.
She just came back from a snowy outdoors driving and looked like rushed too much. On the other end of the camera there is the familiar innocent face which looked a bit overwhelmed with many responsibilities. Wondered why, yet we took a moment to tell her that this is going to be just a friendly chat; may be that made her settled down and bring all the thoughts to share about her music. Introductions apart, we were eager to know all about that singer with 100K followers are madly in love with.
Nikita started apologizing with saying she is not a classically trained singer. So just to be clear here, we want to say repeatedly it is not the only criteria for selection to be here; previously there are many naturally talented singers selected for the reasons that their music talent is unique and for their career aspirations.
Nikita’s Early Music:
“My musical Journey began at the age of twelve years when I got selected to be a part of my school choir to participate in inter-school followed by interstate and national level patriotic group song competitions. We were representing my home city of Vadodara, Gujarat.” The musical training we got for these competitions and in general in school was fairly rigorous and which I believe has got me where I am today.
What is music to you It is a way for me to express myself, it is hugely important part of my life and I believe it is the best way to expresses my inner emotions.
How do you choose your music or what genre of music you like “I like music that speak to me through the lyrics and express emotions and that is important to me. She quickly added “But that does not restrict me at all, I love experimenting with all kinds of songs and try to build up versatility whenever I can.”
Career aspirations: My dream has always been to pursue training in Hindustani Classical Music, which unfortunately got put on the back burner as academics and then mainstream career took over. However music never left me, even in college when I was studying to become a Physiotherapist, I became very popular for my singing abilities and got several opportunities to perform in front of audiences which I thoroughly enjoyed.
About seven years back Nikki moved to United States to do her Masters followed by specialization in Physical Therapy and currently reside and work as a full time Physical Therapist in New Jersey.
“I was already doing some home based recording using karaoke tracks which I would upload on SoundCloud and such other platforms, but the minute I was introduced to Smule by a fellow co-work, I was completely hooked to it. I’ve been on this app for the past three years and have been singing my heart out. Music to me comes naturally and interacting with other fellow singers has definitely helped develop my talent over these years. I consider singing and music an integral part of my soul, a tool which helps me to express myself in the best way possible.”
In addition to Bollywood Hindi songs, Nikki says she love singing Gujarati bhajans, shlokas, Rigvedas in Sanskrit as well as exploring different languages. “When I’m not bogged down by busy work schedule and I enjoy it all immensely. My biggest fan following begins right at home including my husband, parents, entire in-law family as well as friends who have always and unconditionally appreciated, supported and taken immense pride in my musical ventures.”
Nikita is someone who have a lot of fan following and her walls on her invites get a response in less than a second. She says this to her fans “I’m thankful to each of my followers on Smule for listening to me and appreciating my efforts. I intend to continue honing my skills by learning to play my guitar and hopefully if time and resources allow, I wish to expand to a bigger platform like YouTube and participate in other live performances.” Excellent plans and we wish Nikki a huge success in her aspirations
Is classical music important for success “Yes, Singers with classical training have definitely have an edge over singers who are not trained. I myself was a top contestant in a singing contest – Atlanta Indian Idol held in Georgia in 2014. I made it to the 4 Finalists. During such competitions an element of training in classical music definitely can be advantageous”
How about world music and other non India music? “Not much into western pop music, but love some selected Country songs. To the end to the western styles, I love playing Guitar, started some level of learning from proper tutoring, “
How do you practice a song before singing? We wanted to know how Nikita do her songs on Smule, one thing amazed about her is her ability to make harmonized singing despite the other singer present. But when someone sing with her it will all look like she just sang the part so perfect in every sense. “Initially, I hear the song a lot and it may go indefinite in my head for many days the same song, then once it feel right i just sing the song and records”
Are you active in NJ music groups? “Unlike there is a lot of gigs around NY, the suburbs I live in, have very few such things. I wish I could have a music group and get togethers. But at the moment not much other than Smule singing”*
Are you a socially responsible Artist? ” Yes of course” the answer came very sudden and emphatic “An artist have to be definitely a responsible individual socially and politically. But the aesthetic part of it is always priority, but use of music and its lyrics for other causes is absolutely is a way of expression.” Profound words and thoughts define Nikki
Favorite singers Nikki’s most favorite singer is Shreya Ghoshal- versatile and for her techniques of singing. Sunidhi Chauhan Unique voice qualities and amazing versatility. Nikki like Neeti Mohan. Neeti was originally a part of the famous band called Aasma and carved her way up very quickly. Some famous songs of hers: Jiya Re (Jab tak hai Jaan), Nainowale Ne (padmaavat), Tune Maari Entriyaan (Gunday), etc.
Aksed about favorite Male singers Arijit Sigh again for his versatility and technique of singing. Nikki quickly added among older female singer s she want to mention Kavitha Krishnamoorthy for her style of singing and her voice range.
Let us listen to her singing from sound recording and vidoes Nikki herself uploaded for us to embed. Here the very first pick is a super special one for Nikki. Saibo, unmistakably this beautiful slow melody was done of two young men music directors came to national fame from Gujarat for national fame Sachin and Jigger. We did feature this song when we featured Sneha Haule. We also added the translation of this beautiful song in English at the end of her feature. Listen to this rendition here in Nikki’s voice.
Here Nikki sing a Kavitha Krishnamurthy song. Kavitha is known for her unique voice quality a lot. The Song : Aaj Main Upar Singer : Kumar Sanu & Kavita Krishnamurthy Music : Jatin Lalit/ listen this in Nikki’s voice. A very different style song than normal Nikki style yet this is equally nice. Listen she is joined by Karthik Shashank who is a great friend we will see in feature in few months time. This is real groovy and smooth as it can get.
Here Nikki sings her favorite male singer song Samjhawan the heart touching melody. Song Name – Samjhawan Movie – Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania Singer – Arijit Singh & Shreya Ghoshal Lyrics – Kumaar & Ahmad Anees Music – Sharib Toshi & Jawad Ahmed Director – Shashank Khaitan.
SECRET SUPERSTAR Nachdiphira- Singer: Meghna Mishra Music: Amit Trivedi Lyrics: Kausar Munir, a beautiful song which reminds one of every girl in India who is afraid to show their talent. The song is very special for the bloggers and this is the first ever we featured it. It is an absolute gem for which Meghna won Filmfare awards for her singing. We also have added the translation of this song in one of our previous features. Enjoy this in Nikki’s voice. And that harmonizing trick here. Her ability to transition form normal to falsetto is absolutely commendable. MAY be one of the toughest song and an excellent rendition.
An old golden toughie from Movie – Utsav Actors – Rekha , Anuradha Patel Singer – Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle Lyrics – Vasant Dev Music Composer – Laxmikant – Pyarelal. Excellent pick of song another beautiful performance by Nikki. Listen to those beautiful expressions in her singing.
Another beautiful song here.Song: GALLIYAN Singer: ANKIT TIWARI Lyrics: MANOJ MUNTASHIR Music: ANKIT TIWARI
This song perfect example to display Nikki’s many characteristic singing style. Some of these songs are extremely tough to make it sound like that, not an easy song.
Ambar Sariya and here comes out of Nikki the fun loving Nikki. Singing a Sona Mohapatra song, excellent song choice and singing. One of Nikii’s best. Song: AMBARSARIYA Singer: SONA MOHAPATRA Music: RAM SAMPATH Lyrics: MUNNA DHIMA
END NOTES:
At the end of the conversations it was very convincing that we get to know why Nikita is a popular artist and many of her followers wrote to us about her. She is one artist we found true to her heart. Her profile is a place she interact with many talented youngsters like herself and do a lot of fun stuff and experiment her singing. More to the reasons her tasteful song choices and an identification of her strengths and weaknesses and a constant effort to keep her skills improved made her place here. Among many other youngsters we covered here Nikita occupies a special niche that she made herself and is a queen of soft melodies and unplugged world. Very commendable singing and a huge presence on Smule platform that many wish could make happen; Yet when we met with her and interacted with her she was such a sweet person we could not keep appreciating her tenacity and thoughtfulness. Keep the good work. We enjoyed knowing this singer and able to bring Nikita’s beautiful music to all you guys. You want to encourage her go here to hear more of her songs on Smule Profile and follow.
This reblog feature is for our patron expert Lakshmipriya who always showed support and help assess singers for the features without any hesitation. When we called her she at the moment is a bit busy with her family and a little one. Despite all that, Lakshmi was all enthusiastic about her new album released . She told us about quickly few details of her new album that just got released called Sunanadavinodini. The album comes when a special time for Tamil called Pongal is a harvest festival that bring feelings of prosperity and richness at the same time we are thankful to god for all that blessings.
Sunadhavinodhini – An album of songs in praise of Deviyar – Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi, Mookambigai, Thulasi, Booma devi & Lalithambigai. Composed by Sriraman to the lyrics of Rajan Srinivaas & Vyjayanthi the album is produced by Shyam Sundar. The highlight of the album is that for the first time Smule Singers come together to present this for you.
Behind the album is a lot of effort from a lot of singers from Smule working together to put together a beautiful album. Apart from Lakshmi and Ranjani there few other super stars from Smule are part of this excellent album. The album is produced by Shyam Sundar under the banner of Euphony. Lakshmi said it is mastered by Ramesh Kidambi who is a famous sound engineer from Kannada music industry. The people behind this great effort are following.
Album : Sunadhavinodhini Lyricist : Vyjayanthi Music : Aalayam Sriraman Arrangements : V. Sankaran Keyboards : Vijaishankar Flute : Natraj Veena : Ranjani Violins : Sankaran, Balaji, Baskar & Vijayabaskar Rhythms : Venkat rao & Jaychaa Recorded by Arif Dani & Gobi Mixed & Mastered by Ramesh Kidambi Produced by Shyam Sundar Camera : Mathiyalagan (IMC) Asst : P. Ram Edited by Don Anthony (RaDon Media)
Some of the singers on this album are already stars on Smule scene or otherwise accomplished singers, like Ramya Duraiswamy is a famous performing stage artist with a huge fan following on Smule. Meera Iyer is a famous play back singer. Lakshmi herself have worked for many albums and sung for Playback before this experience. She said it was her experience singing for a devotional album; She is really excited and now very happy it all came out so good. The other singers on the album from Smule are Vijitha Ganeshan, Uma Rao, Bhairavi Gopi and her sister Ranjani Mahesh on Veena recital are phenomenal singers and artists from Tamil Smule Scene.
The album is pure bliss to listen to. As far as its music quality it is very well done with all songs based on Carnatic Raagas; the lyrics and the concept of it give emphasis to woman deities and a decision on woman singers from Smule is an absolute right on one; in the history of music this is poised to have far reaching percussions. All the selected singers are a pleasure to listen to with a nice spectrum of different textures of female voices.
The special mention for songs Agaththiya Maamunivar by Ramya, Vedam Olikum by Ranjani Sukumaran, Yezhilaga Thaaye by Lakshmi, Vaani Kalivani by Meera Iyer and Mohana Sripua by Bhairavi Gopi are amazingly perfect and performed with authority. Some of the singers and the ease at which they perform is so amazing. Lakshmi was telling about the insist of music directors to get the best out of everyone by doing all possible help. It looks like a very well done album with perfect harmony in its thoughts and presentation. Another highlight of the album is its picturization. One get to see some of the most serene temple scenes and most amazingly beautiful aerial scenes. Kudos to the videographer and the mixing table. The only major criticism is the length of the songs. All these songs have to have shorter versions for their Youtube success and have to be as short as less than two minute in length. For an average viewer the attention span and patience to listen to the whole song is limited as social research studies we did on this aspect.
Lakshmi said it was recorded in a studio owned by SPB sir and here we share some photos shared by her.
It is such a special feeling to bring Lakshmi Priya a second time on a very important and special feature where we are honoring the South India’s Carnatic legend Smt. MS Subbulakshmi (MSS) amma. Tamil Nadu is a state that produced and contributed enormously to the nurture of South India Carnatic music. A whole generation of fellow-men and women for whom the music is a way of life and the straight way to reach god. Soon in an anecdote you will see the struggles and victory of legendary MSS amma at a time in history when women singers struggled to lead a public life. Our hope is readers realize the humble beginnings of these two singers and encourage them by visiting their Smule page and follow them and encourage them.
SreeLakshmi Priya – A singer of sweetest melodies
Sree Laksmiprya is here solely because of a great kind music director Shabir Tabre Alam came on Smule Sing and posted a contest to select singers for his upcoming movie project Sagaa. See the details of the contest and its winners here. #SingForShabir.
For the people who do not know about what this all about. Shabir is a music composer, director who posted few months back a contest on Smule for finding a singer for his upcoming projects. At the end of it he announced two winners and Lakshmipriya and Riya Debnath won the chance to sing for Shabir
After her win Lakshmi had been very actively utilizing her collaborative skills to make her own you tube productions. Here is her such attempts. That is what separate Lakshmi from many others here. She is very entrepreneurial and find ways to promote her music actively searching for ways to be in front of her audience.
It was such a great gesture for many singers from a great award-winning music director like him coming and do a contest on a very popular app. We posted the contest on our blog and informed Shabir about this he wrote immediately back “That’s awesome and will check out “. Also when the winners announced we were awed; knowing that there were thousands of entries for the contest and it must have been a Himalyan task to go through them. But you know what, the great news is, he indeed came up with the best of best as you are going to witness here. Shabir agreed for an interview with us but we could not make it happen yet, due to Shabir’s busy schedule. Will do a feature for him whenever he want. Nevertheless, we were able to catch up with the two new celebrities he created Sree Lakshmipriya and Riya Debnath. Riya is in a previously announced feature next week dedicated to Rabidra Sangeeth.
When approached for this write up Lakshmipriya was really warm and sweet telling us she would be delighted to share her experiences with all of us. Asked about her Carnatic training ” Learnt from 4th grade till about 12th grade regularly”. She hail from a very small place called Neyveli. Asked weather “She ever thought she have a chance to win this?” “Not even a clue, but like in everything I gave it a sincere try”. Definitely, it is one of the most beautiful entries.
Asked a tricky question to her , “OK Shabir gave you this opportunity, now with this do you think you can make it big?” The answer was a very confident ” Yes , I think I can make it big” She continued saying ” All songs are very inspirational for me” ” Then she quickly added “There will be many hurdles on the way to the success, and one have to make those hurdles into steps. Perseverance, will lead to sure success” All profoundly well thought amazing pieces of thoughts by a girl from a small humble background; a great gesture by a great music director here, sure selected a right candidate for his project. Lakshmi is a hard worker and a very sweet soul. Asked about her favorite music genre, she said “Raaja sir songs than max irukum, you can download them from my profile” A singer of Raaja melodies and she continues to say ” Raaja sir’s music romba soulful “
A great singer indeed as you all going to witness more here. Let us start with her winning entry of Yayum song here
Here is her winning entry – a great effort of a great music director to come out to select a not at all famous singer but sing her heart out there and gave it her best try. Entire smule community very happy about Shabir and will be huge supporter of his upcoming projects. Recently “Thinkmusic” came with the “Pondattee contest” that is also an awesome one. Great job Shabir. Very smart move indeed. Enjoy Shabir’s Yayum song with Lakshmi.
Malargale malargale an AR Rahman song (who just yesterday won another national award for his Maniratnam movie). We hope Lakshmipriya get all that opportunity to sing for all great music directors like him. The co-singer Jey Raghavan is a very nice singer on Tamil smule with an excellent singing voice.
A very unusual song selection of a beautiful melody originally sung by an awesome Carnatic trained playback singer Unnikrishnan. Adi Anarkali Adiye Anarkali. A very fresh feel to a male-female song. Lakshmipriya gave the song a lot of beautiful expressions; Listen to her singing this song from the movie Varushamellam Vasantha.
Kanna Kaatthu Podhum from Rekka movie song a beautiful solo performance. Original song by Shreya Ghoshal, exceptionally beautiful high notes, extremely challenging song. Note the control of her high notes, effort-full, yet no strain in the voice; rather it added some more expression and ‘feel’ into the song. We think these performances on her profile make this singer a class apart.
Nan Pogiren A Chitra & SPB beauty, here sung by Lakshmipriya and Sreekrishnan.
Lakshmipriya during our interaction came out to be the most unassuming person who definitely deserve everything going on in her life. Shabir by doing this great contest did a life changing event for all those on Smule who work hard on their singing and it gave a hope and purpose to all those hidden talents. Lakshmipriya wanted all Illayaraja songs in this feature, due to some copyright issues we were not able to display some of her best performances. Please visit her smule sing profile here. and do follow her and encourage this singer. All the best and a big thanks for Shabir to speak with us.
MS Subbulakshmi- a women genius and her personal struggles
We thought there is no other legend suitable to go in this feature when two phenomenal singers from Tamil Nadu is on our feature.
Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi or popularly known among her devotees as MS Amma ( MS the mother). Born to a devdasi mother MS was taught the art of singing at very young age itself. Later she eloped from a marriage arranged by her mother and fell in love with a married man Kalki Sadasivam a leading political figure a freedom fighter. They both waited till the man’s wife passed away to continue a life together. After marriage she assumed the role of a traditional house wife, where her husband decided what she did with her career. Even he spoke for her in public. But biographers who really tried to understand the woman behind this public persona, believe that behind all the traditional India woman one can see her rebellious nature, who silently led a war against traditions. She eloped from an arranged marriage, fell in love with a married man, ultimately waited long to marry him and madly trusted him for the rest of her life, and treated him as her soul mate and gave him every respect. The character she portrayed in “Meera” was a true representation of a rebel woman and people at that time believed that she is the saint singer in actual life. A woman who never had to crave for any fame and who almost lived under the public eye from her early age itself it must have been hard not to obey all the norms. We will try to go through this great legendary singers life and music very briefly
Her Music:
She learned all her basics of Carnatic music from her mother and her Hindustani from Pandit Narayan Rao Vyas. She recorded her first album at the age of 10, never had to look back. The sweetest voice and maturity in her singing wowed the pandits of music at that time.
MSS name is synonymous with Carnatic music. Her music is very bakhti oriented (devotional) and she had the right sense of singing all various techniques of the sangathies, and in every performance everything is well planned with brigas and aakarams; start from a very broad base that culminate in an upper octave. For her, swaras are not just distinct sounds that can form millions of permutation combinations; but they merge into each other which expresses the raaga bhavam that reaches the listeners and carry them to a different world. This was possible only by a maestro like her. It is just the sheer genius that we all witnessed when she was alive and now all her recordings convey to us.
Here we share one of the most iconic prayers sung by MSS amma. Just by growing up in India every one know this Venkateshwara Suprabatham in her voice on the microphones from local temples for sure. That voice and this prayer in the morning put one to peace and right mood to start a great day. Give a listen.
Her Movies and her portrayal of Meerabhai:
She acted in few Tamil movies. We just want to restrict our discussions to one movie that we think really is a classic movie made in India cinema. It is “Meera. The movie was made in 1945 directed by an American film director Ellis R. Dungan. MSS portrayed the character of Meera who believed to have lived in 1400s to 1500s period of time and an ardent devotee to Lord Krishna whom she assumed as her husband; Merra bhai is a Hindu mystic poet born to a royal Rajput family. She is well-known as the Bhakti movement of worship of Krishna, She is known as fearless and have disregard to many societal conventional familial ties and her devotion to Krishna is portrayed as the ultimate Krishna Bhakta. A devotee believe her Lord as her husband it was never heard of. She was married according to historians to a king Bhoj Raj unwillingly but the king died in a war and soon her father in law also died in another war related incident. Soon after a new King named Vikram Singh became king of Mewar.Stories says that new king tried his best to attain her love, failed miserably to gain a place in a Krishna devotee Meera’s heart and thus King tried to kill her by poisoning her. The legend says Akbar and Tansen came in disguise to listen to her singing because people talked about her singing all over India. The movie and stories say that Akbar left gold coins embedded with King’s emblem for her impressed by her singing. Although these are all colorful stories portrayed in the movie there is no historic evidence attached to all these incidents. Although Tansen lived roughly around the same era of 1400 to 1500s according to the references.
Meera’s poetry are lyrical padas (metered verses)
Koi Kahe Tene Kaheva Dayiye _let the worldly people Criticize our devotion
The interest of westerners in the Bhakti marga was still evident in US where Hare krishna movement is still very strong. Go here at their official site at http://www.iskcon.org/.
Meera’s love is almost synonym to the love of Krishna’s worldly love Radha. Earlier in a feature we talked about yet another branch of music from the state of Kerala called Sopanasangeetham. Sure read our beautiful feature on this unique style where Radha and Krishna’ s love affair is the theme of this music. Meera call Krishna the dark one here is a translation of some verses
My Dark One has gone to an alien land. He has left me behind, he’s never returned, he’s never sent me a single word. So I’ve stripped off my ornaments, jewels and adornments, cut my hair from my head. And put on holy garments, all on his account, seeking him in all four directions. Mira: unless she meets the Dark One, her Lord, she doesn’t even want to live.
Also people may be interested to read about a History channel program called Ancient Aliens here . Krishna is a subject we love to explore in addition to Shiva in our features in the coming episodes. These two Gods both are closely aligned to the music and dance.
MSS amma truly was living a life of Meera and she seems related a lot to this character and to this day a movie made in 1947 stands as a musical experiment done by an American film director along with this musical legend. Here we add one famous song by MSS in the movie. Enjoy.
Her Legacy:
Certain singers leave a legacy behind that is infectious. There are as many as thousands of web resources to read on MSS and her singing and understandably every one ever listen to MSS amma will be addicted. The bloggers are almost mesmerized about this. The hope is that all readers of the blog also read and try to know about these legends. All they did was dedicated their life to one cause and that was singing their heart out every time. The rest all happened around them.
Today we like to highlight all the singers that mentioned on the blog are equally passionate about what they are doing with their singing on Smule. Be encouraging to everybody, complement each other. Ranjani and Lakshmi are very collaborative and many others like Vidya, Rama madam, Ranjani V., SreeKrishnan, Venkat all are very open-minded beautiful singers from Tamil Smule Sing. We are very happy we were able to share a piece of your singing here and write about all that musical journey. Write to us when you have time. We appreciate people participation here much. All the best to all singers. Shout out goes to Shabir, the man of his words.
References:
MS Subbulakshmi: The Definitive Biography, TJS George, Aleph Book Company.
In this weeks poetry time we are adding a Meera Bhajan originally posted at http://www.gitananda.org/ and thanks for sharing this with us. Beautiful page visit them if you are interested in understanding the meanings of Meera Bhajans.
Meera Ko Prabhu Sachi Dasi Banao – Lord, Make Mira Your True Servant
O Beloved Lord! Make Mira your true servant. Help me free myself from the evil and worthless worldly dealings and relationships.
Whenever I think and use too much of my intelligence, I lose wisdom or power of discrimination between right and wrong.
Oh! Oh! How pathetic! There is nothing that belongs to me. I am dying helplessly, confused and sad. O Lord! Come quickly to my help (and save me from drowning in the ocean of samsar).
Everyday I listen (read, think and meditate) to the religious discourses and books. I am also afraid of my vicious passionate mind.
Always, I serve the saints and holy men and women. I engage my mind in remembering you through meditation.
O Dear lord! To this servant of no value show the path of devotion (as you taught the gopis of Vrindavan, particularly Radhaji). Please make Mira your true servant.
References : http://www.gitananda.org/
It is such a special feeling to introduce these two singers here from Tamil Nadu again on this re-blog weeks. Ranjani and Lakshmi Priya on a very important and special feature where we are honoring the South India’s Carnatic legend Smt. MS Subbulakshmi (MSS) amma. Tamil Nadu is a state that produced and contributed enormously to the nurture of South India Carnatic music. A whole generation of fellow-men and women for whom the music is a way of life and the straight way to reach god. Soon in an anecdote you will see the struggles and victory of legendary MSS amma at a time in history when women singers struggled to lead a public life. Our hope is readers realize the humble beginnings of these two singers and encourage them by visiting their Smule page and follow them and encourage them.
Ranjani S – A Melodious Voice Born to Sing
INTRODUCTION
The re-blogging of Ranjani’s feature is our one hundredth blog feature appeared here. Last time we all have seen how well a collaborative singer she is and she had shown us her tremendous potential in making independant You Tube productions. Since then she was searching for any or every opportunities to participate in getting her voice heard. Here listen to her latest album song from the Pongal release with all her other Smule friends and major music producers from Tamil music industry.
During a conversation Ranjani said this to us “I have been learning classical music from my father as you are aware. I have a passion for both Tamil and hindi songs. I have also learnt some basics of Hindustani classical from Ms. Soumya Madhangopal. But I could not continue due to personal reasons.”
Ranjani mentioned about her younger sister Ms.Ramya Sivaramakrishnan who is also a singer and performer. “But she is not singing on Smule. Recently my father has shown some interest in Smule; so I try my best spending with him for his recording in Smule.”
How did you get this chance to sing on this beautiful album? “Mr. Shyaam Sunder approached me for singing in this devotional Album. I was so excited as this is my first devotional Album. Also his concept was unique. Totally there were eight songs based on eight different raagas. He suggested which song will suit the singers based on the tune. That was the main thing. Selecting a tune which will match a singer’s voice.”
“Shyaam is really so talented. Also we all were able to perform well in this album because of the great composer Aalayam Sriram Sir. He was so friendly giving comments and encouraged a lot. So we felt comfortable while recording. Also would like to thank Shyaam for giving opportunity to Smule singers especially. Today people don’t have time to think about themselves, but these legends have done this project for each and every performer’s growth.”
what is the immediate plans?
“My plan for my musical career is to try out different genres and try my level best to get into playback.”
ABOUT RAJANI THE SINGER:It was serendipity that led us to find this great singer on Smule. Ranjani’s profile display an awesome singing talent. When approached she was very kind to accept the invitation with much grace. She identify herself as a classical based singer. Her father Sivaramakrishnan is her guru (teacher). Her dad himself is a stage performer of devotional concerts, and a big fan of T.M. Soundararajan. For novice TMS is one of Tamil movie industry’s lead male singer who sang many songs for Kolliwood super stars like MGR, Shivaji Ganeshan etc. The influences of some singers of certain era form the music taste of some people. Like wise Ranjani at a very early age itself started singing, inspired by her fathers singing cinema music at home . Then later she was properly trained in Carnatic music under his teachings.
MUSIC BACKGROUND: Ranjani although like very classically inclined songs she is not shy from giving a try at Reality shows; she realize the changes in the music world. She participated in many TV shows like Ragamalika on Jaya TV and Airtel super singer on Vijay TV etc. Her favorite time pass is to do singing performances in concerts at her local temple. She work for a private firm based in Chennai. She like the Smule app very much for its features of challenges in self producing a song by singing a video song at a stretch. The app helped her practice a lot and above all hearing the recorded versions makes her gain a lot of confidence lately. She is also very active locally in judging music competitions.
MUSIC MUSIC: She then moved on to describe what inspires her as a musician. She says ” I would love to compose devotional songs and produce them myself.” She is already on her way to produce songs with her few friends and posted them on YouTube. Here is her own production of an album called Meimarandhu. Wowed by this! She already have made some original compositions and she is highly collaborative with her like-minded two friends Swetha and Vinoth. About the album production she says ” I approached my friends who sing well Swetha and Vinoth; they agreed to join her in this music production and they all shared the expenses to make the album”. Here is a song from her album. https://youtu.be/nw6CUB9mdMo
Ranjani is an awesome singer and we now know her never-ending spirit while working with her on this feature. A very hard-working and focused singer with a clear vision on what she want to do with her singing. We see a lot of changes in the social set up where modern-day singers go through. Yet the struggles and the steps that one take to success is very similar. We are very sure Ranjani will be a very successful musician like her wishes to make devotional music.
HER SMULE PROFILE: Without delay let us get to know her singing profile. Let us do this song she sang with a phenomenal voice in Tamil smule Venkat. Thanks Venkant for coming on our blog and write a comment on our very first singer to feature here VidhuVivek. Here is a small gift to include your wonderful singing. Janaki and SPB song. There is nothing can go wrong if Ranjani try a S. Janaki song, Awesome melodious voice. https://youtu.be/F2-igF7Qe5k
Another dedication to a big supporter of our blog Rama Swaminath. She is one of the first people who came on the blog to write a few lines showed a lot of support. More than a thanks her efforts to nurture good singers on Smule sing by leading a role to have people learn different ragas and raga based songs in films was commendable. She used to run invites for people to join in free style. During some chat she mentioned her busy schedule as a doctor profession keeps her very busy these days. Still madam, we thank you for the kind gesture to write few words on our humble blog and also gave moral support to the blog. Here she sings with Ranjani on her invite Hi Rama Ye Kya Huva This is out of this world. The song itself is full of possibilities to innovate and make it more beautiful than the original. Both singers sang this awesome.
Srividhya Vivek, our very first featured singer singing an MSS movie classic song from movie Meera Kaatrinile Varum Geetham with Ranjani. So fitting this song and it is a song made in 1947 and we think OMG, these two singers have made MS magic a new touch here. Kudos to Vidhya to sing such songs and send invites. In this context we have to specially mention VidhuVivek an amazing talent we already have featured her in our first blog. Watch this song she sang.
Here joining her invite Ranjani show enormous potential in her voice and singing ability and the taste for excellent music. Excellent join and singing by both. This can be a called as a Gem of class on Smule Sing.
Here Ranjani joins another beautiful young singer KrishanUnni a most beautiful Kahe Ched form Devdas.
Illayaraja magic. A beautiful singing with SreeKrishnan. Vellai Pura ondru. SreeKrishnan is lined up in an upcoming feature here, not a trained singer and with a unique voice. You may find a number of joins with him on Ranjani’s profile. Ranjanis’ voice and its quality is awesome. Again S. Jananki & K.J. Song.
Ranjani joins yet anotehr young voice very unique promising singer profile name Sreeku on a beautiful melody Swasame Swasame
Ranjani here proved that she can sing any melody despite any language barrier without any accents and she joins Pradip Soman on Gaatha Rahe, an old Hindi classic song originally sung by Kishoreda and Lataji. Ranjani’s voice quality is amazing. No words to describe Pradip Soman Sir. Beautiful, watch this, excellent musical expressions.
Lastly we wanted to add this to show a promising male singer Balakrishnan, Aagaya Vennilave. Nice support by both and great singing.
MS Subbulakshmi- a women genius and her personal struggles
We thought there is no other legend suitable to go in this feature when two phenomenal singers from Tamil Nadu is on our feature.
Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi or popularly known among her devotees as MS Amma ( MS the mother). Born to a devdasi mother MS was taught the art of singing at very young age itself. Later she eloped from a marriage arranged by her mother and fell in love with a married man Kalki Sadasivam a leading political figure a freedom fighter. They both waited till the man’s wife passed away to continue a life together. After marriage she assumed the role of a traditional house wife, where her husband decided what she did with her career. Even he spoke for her in public. But biographers who really tried to understand the woman behind this public persona, believe that behind all the traditional India woman one can see her rebellious nature, who silently led a war against traditions. She eloped from an arranged marriage, fell in love with a married man, ultimately waited long to marry him and madly trusted him for the rest of her life, and treated him as her soul mate and gave him every respect. The character she portrayed in “Meera” was a true representation of a rebel woman and people at that time believed that she is the saint singer in actual life. A woman who never had to crave for any fame and who almost lived under the public eye from her early age itself it must have been hard not to obey all the norms. We will try to go through this great legendary singers life and music very briefly
Her Music:
She learned all her basics of Carnatic music from her mother and her Hindustani from Pandit Narayan Rao Vyas. She recorded her first album at the age of 10, never had to look back. The sweetest voice and maturity in her singing wowed the pandits of music at that time.
MSS name is synonymous with Carnatic music. Her music is very bakhti oriented (devotional) and she had the right sense of singing all various techniques of the sangathies, and in every performance everything is well planned with brigas and aakarams; start from a very broad base that culminate in an upper octave. For her, swaras are not just distinct sounds that can form millions of permutation combinations; but they merge into each other which expresses the raaga bhavam that reaches the listeners and carry them to a different world. This was possible only by a maestro like her. It is just the sheer genius that we all witnessed when she was alive and now all her recordings convey to us.
Here we share one of the most iconic prayers sung by MSS amma. Just by growing up in India every one know this Venkateshwara Suprabatham in her voice on the microphones from local temples for sure. That voice and this prayer in the morning put one to peace and right mood to start a great day. Give a listen.
Her Movies and her portrayal of Meerabhai:
She acted in few Tamil movies. We just want to restrict our discussions to one movie that we think really is a classic movie made in India cinema. It is “Meera. The movie was made in 1945 directed by an American film director Ellis R. Dungan. MSS portrayed the character of Meera who believed to have lived in 1400s to 1500s period of time and an ardent devotee to Lord Krishna whom she assumed as her husband; Merra bhai is a Hindu mystic poet born to a royal Rajput family. She is well-known as the Bhakti movement of worship of Krishna, She is known as fearless and have disregard to many societal conventional familial ties and her devotion to Krishna is portrayed as the ultimate Krishna Bhakta. A devotee believe her Lord as her husband it was never heard of. She was married according to historians to a king Bhoj Raj unwillingly but the king died in a war and soon her father in law also died in another war related incident. Soon after a new King named Vikram Singh became king of Mewar.Stories says that new king tried his best to attain her love, failed miserably to gain a place in a Krishna devotee Meera’s heart and thus King tried to kill her by poisoning her. The legend says Akbar and Tansen came in disguise to listen to her singing because people talked about her singing all over India. The movie and stories say that Akbar left gold coins embedded with King’s emblem for her impressed by her singing. Although these are all colorful stories portrayed in the movie there is no historic evidence attached to all these incidents. Although Tansen lived roughly around the same era of 1400 to 1500s according to the references.
Meera’s poetry are lyrical padas (metered verses)
Koi Kahe Tene Kaheva Dayiye _let the worldly people Criticize our devotion
The interest of westerners in the Bhakti marga was still evident in US where Hare krishna movement is still very strong. Go here at their official site at http://www.iskcon.org/.
Meera’s love is almost synonym to the love of Krishna’s worldly love Radha. Earlier in a feature we talked about yet another branch of music from the state of Kerala called Sopanasangeetham. Sure read our beautiful feature on this unique style where Radha and Krishna’ s love affair is the theme of this music. Meera call Krishna the dark one here is a translation of some verses
My Dark One has gone to an alien land. He has left me behind, he’s never returned, he’s never sent me a single word. So I’ve stripped off my ornaments, jewels and adornments, cut my hair from my head. And put on holy garments, all on his account, seeking him in all four directions. Mira: unless she meets the Dark One, her Lord, she doesn’t even want to live.
Also people may be interested to read about a History channel program called Ancient Aliens here . Krishna is a subject we love to explore in addition to Shiva in our features in the coming episodes. These two Gods both are closely aligned to the music and dance.
MSS amma truly was living a life of Meera and she seems related a lot to this character and to this day a movie made in 1947 stands as a musical experiment done by an American film director along with this musical legend. Here we add one famous song by MSS in the movie. Enjoy.
Her Legacy:
Certain singers leave a legacy behind that is infectious. There are as many as thousands of web resources to read on MSS and her singing and understandably every one ever listen to MSS amma will be addicted. The bloggers are almost mesmerized about this. The hope is that all readers of the blog also read and try to know about these legends. All they did was dedicated their life to one cause and that was singing their heart out every time. The rest all happened around them.
Today we like to highlight all the singers that mentioned on the blog are equally passionate about what they are doing with their singing on Smule. Be encouraging to everybody, complement each other. Ranjani and Lakshmi are very collaborative and many others like Vidya, Rama madam, Ranjani V., SreeKrishnan, Venkat all are very open-minded beautiful singers from Tamil Smule Sing. We are very happy we were able to share a piece of your singing here and write about all that musical journey. Write to us when you have time. We appreciate people participation here much. All the best to all singers. Shout out goes to Shabir, the man of his words.
References:
MS Subbulakshmi: The Definitive Biography, TJS George, Aleph Book Company.
In this weeks poetry time we are adding a Meera Bhajan originally posted at http://www.gitananda.org/ and thanks for sharing this with us. Beautiful page visit them if you are interested in understanding the meanings of Meera Bhajans.
Meera Ko Prabhu Sachi Dasi Banao – Lord, Make Mira Your True Servant
O Beloved Lord! Make Mira your true servant. Help me free myself from the evil and worthless worldly dealings and relationships.
Whenever I think and use too much of my intelligence, I lose wisdom or power of discrimination between right and wrong.
Oh! Oh! How pathetic! There is nothing that belongs to me. I am dying helplessly, confused and sad. O Lord! Come quickly to my help (and save me from drowning in the ocean of samsar).
Everyday I listen (read, think and meditate) to the religious discourses and books. I am also afraid of my vicious passionate mind.
Always, I serve the saints and holy men and women. I engage my mind in remembering you through meditation.
O Dear lord! To this servant of no value show the path of devotion (as you taught the gopis of Vrindavan, particularly Radhaji). Please make Mira your true servant.
References : http://www.gitananda.org/
We knew Tanmay through Smule for many months now; he is a fireball of energy and full of enthusiasm for good music. Since last time we featured Tanmay, as we anticipated, he went onto do so many great things that many other people in India dream as an aspiring singer. He was chosen as top 100 contestant on the Idol India 2018 competitions. Currently he got selected for the most respected music reality show on India’s Hindi cable television Zee Tv’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and is now in the finals. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa little champ is now going for the real Sa Re Ga Ma Pa championship. Please read our story that we wrote for him earlier last year. At that time we saw Tanmay as a singer who have spend hours training himself in Hindustani Classical music and do a lot of other activities for the nurture of music in Agra. He found a new way to use Smule app for music learning and his virtual institute MSIPA (described below).
Becoming a top five contestant on a show judged by Bollywoods’ best of best music directors and singers is not a simple feat to achieve. We want to stand behind Tanmay in his current TV show voting and want to appeal to all friends here to go and vote for him in this contest.
Judges for this year on Sa re ga ma pa are Shekhar Ravjiani, Sona Mohapatra(left early), Wajid Khan, Richa Sharma(replaced Miss.Mohapatra)(Sona Mahapatra, shown in the picture here unfortunately left the show after few episodes; Tanmay represented her Gharaana) and Tanmay told us her mentor ship and support was highly cherished.
Tanmay proved time and time, that his talent undeniable. We are so proud to present him a second time on the blog page and very thankful that he gave a chance for us to write about his music, so that even when all the lights go down after the show, people will know about this champion of music.
His feature is one of the closest to our hearts that we wrote; for his ability to sing his heart out there and his mastery over Hindustani music. All the way fans here. Tanmay’s profile is suggested by our own north eastern patrons. Thanks for this help, and sorry for a long wait to get him scheduled.
Tanmay’s story of music is a Nationally televised event in India. He is a very fortunate kid from Agra, the city of Taj Mahal. At very young age itself, Tanmay sang in front of an entire nation week after week on India’s most popular Hindi cable channel, Zee TV reality show called Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little champs. He was the second runner-up on this highly acclaimed show which was judged by famous musicians like Sonu Nigam and Suresh Wadkar. He was encouraged big time by music directors Vishal Bharadwaj to sing Playback in an Amitabh Bachchan movie “Bhoothnath”. Remember him? He was a little kid with that big voice and all that achievements in his bag at an early age itself. We will soon see he had been working on his vocals and was training in Hindustani big time to come out as a mature vocalist.
Tanmay Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little champ ceremony; Suresh Wadkar, Aditya Narayan and Sonu Nigam
Want to stress here a point that Tanmay is on this feature not because he almost won a reality show at a very young age, but purely because his Smule profile display a very impressive mature singing that we are absolutely convinced need a highlight here so that people know about this champion singer.
Another big aspect to highlight here about Tanmay is his tireless efforts to nurture Hindustani classical music using Smule app. In this respect he single-handed started a virtual institute called MSIPA (Music Speaks; Institute of Performing Arts; see the sign above). The is an organization of singers on Smule who uses Smule app to share their music and teach willing members of this organization free music lessons etc. Tanmay was very vocal when he was talking about his virtual music school. He said the members of this organization get together on Smule and practice together and produce music challenges. He claims it is the only such group of its kind that stress education for anyone who want to learn any form of India classical music. He have a vision and is very hopeful his organization grow bigger with more participation.
Head phone Nawaab- this is his other name because Tanmay listens to music constantly
Here is what this virtual institute in Tanmay’s own words “MSIPA is an institute working on smule and its one and only of its kind on smule; MSIPA means MusicSpeaks; Institute of Performing Arts. We believe in proper training. We train people and we make sure that people can improve their positive zones and also they will make their negative zone comes to positive zone.”
He continued “I want to promote classical music of India and for that I myself is learning Hindustani for the past 10 years or So; really want to change the taste of music among people who sing as well as listen to India music” Profound words indeed. Tanmay is very critical of present day Hindi music, but quickly he added “Some exceptions are always there” He was indicating the few good songs still made in movies that are musically sound.
Here we write this feature to display Tanmay as a mature singer who grew from a Little champ to a great vocalist. Some of the Hindustani Vocals he posted on his Smule Profile is unmatched by anybody of his stature. Let us get to know this singer up close by some songs selected from his profile. We selected very few songs for this singer. Each of these performances we displayed here are some of the toughest songs; song choice wise, profoundly complex music compositions deliberate choices made by Tanmay. For an average singer some of these songs are not favorite choices to sing. Some of these embeds as pure classic music based performances. Bloggers have attempted to understand this as much using references on Hindustani (see important references below). If there are mistakes in interpretation of Raagas please forgive and write to us. We will sure make corrections.
Raag Yaman, this is a basic Raaga of Hindustani. Yaman is considered to be sung for any time of the day, preferably sung during the evenings. Here Tanmay singing Eri Ali Piya Bina a common bandish of Yaman taught to beginners and used in performances of beginners. But check out the most elite Bhimsen Joshi singing the same raag. One famous film song in this raaga is Aap ki Aankon mein Kuch from movie “Ghar”. Here Tanmay did an excellent mature performance of this song
Raag Yaman madhyalaya (medium tempo)
OH BELOVED, COME CLOSE TO ME SOMEDAY… (KADI AA MIL SANWAL YAAR VE); An out of this world Punjabi song. The translation of this song is in our Lyrics time below. Huge respect for Tanmay and his song picks; they are absolutely right on, and beautiful singing. Fantastic is the word.
Taj Dhare Haram – Atif song and nothing more one can ask for. Atif Aslam is a Pakisthani singer with a voice made in Heaven. Here Tanmay did an awesome job with this. We are out of words for a praise for this singer. A mighty effort but poor video production, bad atmosphere choice for a song like that.
Saanware – OMG! that is one daring attempt at Ustaad Nusrat Fateh Ali khan song. How many on Smule can say can sing or will attempt songs like these? May be almost none. And more to this, the maturity in singing he shown here, daring to experiment here is indications of a great music career ahead. We are very fortune that we were able to find a date for Tanmay and feature his singing here. Out of league for any other similar profiles. If the Bollywood industry missed him, it may be lucky, that he went onto learn Hindustani seriously. Now we are sure he will make a wonderful independent singer no matter. People will recognize his singing and will listen to him. Beautiful and fitting singer to represent the heritage of great Hindustani from the city of Agra.
Lastly back to yet another Hindustani classical performance by Tanmay. Raag Bhairavi is said to be similar to Phyrgian mode, a western church note. The things Tanmay learned and his maturity of understanding of Hindustani displayed is awesome.
Here are few of the best of best of Tanmay on the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2018 competitions.
END NOTES
We are very fortunate we get to feature such great singing talents here.We are humbled to have Tanmay to agree to be featured. Tanmay is the most sweetest guy we ever have worked with. He is pure to his heart and most of our interactions with him are very long hours of chat (all good stuff) and Tanmay come out to be a hard worker and very charming. We are sorry to keep him waiting to be featured here so long. Tanmay, it was such a pleasure to know you through Smule and keep in touch. Write to us anytime you want to have us display your singing performances here.
Oh beloved, after smiting me into a helpless fall for you… Don’t you wander somewhere, where I have no sight of you… Make your way home to me now, allow me a glimpse for moments a few.
Oh dear beloved of mine, come close and meet me someday… Each corner of my soul, craves for you loudly…
My life seems lost, abandoned and fray… When my beloved’s scent isn’t in grasp, but fading away… Been an eons that I crave, for my beloved’s presence… Oh dear beloved of mine, come close and meet me someday…
For days spent in detached embrace of yours… Waiting on very ways I traced last footsteps of yours… I sit here losing myself like a castaway… Oh dear beloved of mine, come close and meet me someday…
Original Lyrics
Sajan preet laga ke
Duur des mat jaa
Baso humari nagri
Mohay Sunder Mukh Dikhla ja
O kabhi aa mil sanwal yaar way
Meray loo loo cheekh pukar way
Meri jindri hoyee udaass way
mera sanwal aas na paass way
usse mille nay chaar kahar way
O kabhi aa mil sanwal yaar way
Tujh Harjayee ki banhoon main
aur pyar preet ki rahoon main
main to baithi sab kuj haar way
kabhi aa mil sanwal yaar way…
Important References:
The Raga Guide: A Survey of 74 Hindustani Ragas. Zenith Media, London: 1999.
The great India Singers on Smule Sing 