Happy Birthday Shreya Ghoshal,
We’re thankful to you for giving us such soulful music, and we can’t thank Sanjay Leela Bhansali enough for unearthing you from the singing reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. After all, there have been so many winners and great singers who did get a platform on such shows, but they were unable to find mainstream Bollywood success after that.
You hit the ground running, and won a Filmfare award for Best Female Playback Singer with your very film Devdas. “I remember I was asked to rehearse the song once before finally recording it. I simply closed my eyes and sang without a break. When I opened my eyes, I noticed a lot of excitement and chaos outside the recording room. Then Sanjayji told me I had sung the song so well that they had recorded it at one go,” you said in an interview with Rediff.com. Since then, you’ve given us countless melodious songs which have managed to heal something very deep within us. A balm for the soul, that’s how we would like to describe your voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMrRVEYf1Lc
And it’s not just Sanjay Leela Bhansali who appreciates your talent, stalwarts like AR Rahman do too. “Recently, I heard a song sung by Shreya Ghoshal and I was like why would you put her on autotune? That too a melodic song. Now, why would a Shreya need autotune? Things like this piss you off. She is an amazing singer. If you ask her to sing again she is going to sing in tune. It’s just laziness sometimes I think. People should consciously avoid those things,” Rahman said in an interview with The Hindu.
If we were to compile a list of five songs that you’ve totally rocked, we would have to leave out some extremely good gems. Whether it is the extremely seductive Jaadu Hai Nasha Hai from Jism or it is the extremely energetic Barso Re from Guru, you can bring your A-Game to all types of songs.
On your website, we read about your initial musical journey. “Her mother is a singer and both of her parents are very much culturally inclined and they were very much involved with all those cultural activities. During those activities, as a small child she picked up her first lessons of music. She used to hum the same songs with her immature words whatever her mother sang during rehearsals. It is during those days her potentials of singing was discovered by her parents. At the age of 4, she started learning music, mainly Bengali songs, from her first Guru – her mother. She gave her first stage performance at their club’s annual function. At the age of 6, she started getting formal training in Hindustani Classical Music. She learnt Classical Hindustani Music from Rakesh Sharmaji of Kota, Shri Jayawardhan Bhatnagar, her school’s music teacher and thereafter, from Mahesh Chandra Sharmaji of Kota. She got her intial exposure to hindi film songs and rajasthani folk from Shri Bhatnagar. She received training in playback singing from Padmashree Late Kalyanji Bhai at later stage. After shifting to Mumbai she continued her training in Classical Hindustani Music with Late Mukta Bhideji,” we find out.
All that training and all that hard work shows, but we also have to thank the heavens for a gifted voice. If not for you, the world of female playback singing in the last 15 years or so would have been much poorer.
But you aren’t the only reality singer who hit gold. I am sure, you know about these men and women too.
