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Visually-impaired French teen singer leaves Delhiites wanting an encore

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As Jane's strained tunes came to a befitting end, the audience gathered at the India International Centre auditorium gave the 13-year-old a standing ovation.

Performing in Delhi as part of the annual cultural fest of the physically-challenged, Jane Constantine does not seem any different than 13-year-olds her age. However, she is visually-impaired since birth.

"When she was three years old, we brought her to Chennai to treat her eyes, but the doctors said there was nothing much they could do to help," says her mother Françoise.

Jane, who takes singing lessons, performed John Lennon's 'Imagine' and, surprisingly for a French-speaking teenager, Raghupati raghav raja ram. Impressed, Mauritius's former minister of education and director at UNESCO, Armougum Parsuramen, invited her to be a part of UNESCO's celebrations on World Disability Day in Paris.

"She's such a gifted singer, I wanted her to perform at the festivities. And keeping in mind Mahatma Gandhi's role, I wanted her to sing one of his favourite bhajans," says Parsuramen. Apart from Jane, Luang from Guadeloupe Islands will also perform at the function.

Jane wanted to perform the bhajan in front of an Indian crowd. "I found it quite difficult, the pronunciations were tough and the style of music quite unlike Western classical. But I had fun practising it," she says.

Françoise says they wanted to ensure that Jane was trained in a skill to overcome the difficulties she would face on growing up. "We saw that she loved to sing... She'd pick difficult songs and perform them without any training at five. Music makes her happy," adds the 40-year-old. Jane was sent to music school when she was nine.

One of her constant supports, both offstage and onstage, is her father Tony. As she performs on stage, Tony provides her with the music on keyboard. Once a musician, who gave up his career, he took to it again for his daughter. "We started practising to help her sing first, but now, I double up as her onstage help," says Tony.

Ask Jane about her love for singing, and she replies, "I really love singing, that's all I love doing," adding that it is the blues that she finds solace in.

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