Hear ‘em out!

Talk about young and passionate female singers coming to the fore in the music realm and these ladies make for a fitting example. Nominated for their first music award by the Global Indian Music Academy (GIMA), singers Shefali Alvares, Shilpa Rao, Aditi Singh Sharma, Harshdeep Kaur and Nandini Sarkar are already a name to reckon with, in the Hindi music sphere.

While Nandini — the voice behind the melodious Bhare Naina track from Ra. One, and Harshdeep – who sang the folksy Katiya Karoon in the hit film Rockstar are nominated for best playback singer category in film music; Shilpa and Aditi have been nominated under the non-film music category for their singles I Believe and Hello Andheron respectively, both with the rock band Agnee. And Shefali is the voice behind the new found party anthem Tu Mera Hero, from the movie Desi Boyz, also featuring US-based rapper, Bohemia. Though Shreya Ghoshal (with the maximum nominations) and Sunidhi Chauhan still remain the big fish in the pond, these young guns are all excited and confident about their first nomination.

Shefali, who has been known for her rock and jazz acts with Shefali and the Distil Soul, became an instant hit with the greater public with her track Tu Mera... And this, she says, was a luck-by-chance moment for her. “I have been singing for a long time now but had never forayed into Hindi singing,” says an ecstatic Shefali.

“It’s rather funny because I never thought of doing Hindi music. It was just one day that an engineer working with Pritam called me up and we recorded the song. I didn’t even know what film it was for and it turned out to be such a hit,” adds the singer as she reveals that she is getting more Bollywood projects now and is also recording a song with Vishal-Shekhar this year.

For Shilpa (who sang in the recent film Cocktail), on the other hand, there isn’t any bias between film and non-film music. “I don’t think there is a demarcation as such,” she says. “And there shouldn’t be any either. I’m glad to be able to do a balancing act between both.” 

Shefali adds, that she’s gotten so involved with this Hindi experiment that she is already working on her first Hindi album. “I’m also doing live Bollywood shows now. It’s great fun!”