My fellow participants admired my skills of picking up genres and complimented my voice for the depth,” says Pavithra, who has decided to continue learning guitar, western vocals, focus on producing more cover videos and create her own compositions.‘ARRived’ airs on AR Rahman’s YouTube channel.
Adapting to the style was challenging and the pronunciation was also difficult. I was the only Tamil-speaking person and it would be more like Carnatic versus Hindustani. Every day was filled with practice sessions. “My Mumbai days were some of the best days of my life. She has rendered her voice for the lead for Vanam kuzhudachu song from a film called Aruvadai which is yet to release. The track, like Avina’s previous songs is message driven as well as peppy and foot tapping, taking us into the world of social media and today’s selfie-culture. Her film debut was for a song titled Sillaki Dum from Senjittale En Kadhala in 2017. British-Indian singer-songwriter Avina Shah, who has previously crooned to tracks like ‘Playboy’ and ‘Tera Bina’ is back with her latest song, ‘Husan Di Rani’. The budding artiste has been a part of college bands, done freelance performances and YouTube cover videos. If not for them, I wouldn’t have pursued Carnatic music,” she says. My mother would accompany me for classes. No matter how the big the stage was, my father would encourage me to use every chance to perform. I’m proud to be the fourth generation musician. Her grandfather DB Ramachandran, a film music director, composed the devotional song Vinayakane Vinaitheerpavane and her grandmother used to sing for Hema Malini’s dance performances. Her great grandfather Krishnaswamy Iyengar was a drama artist. She was born in a family with a legacy of musicians. After a point, you lose nervousness and enjoy singing,” says Pavithra, a resident of Mylapore. Rahman sir’s facial expressions are hard to predict. I received a video call from the judges and was asked to come to Mumbai in October for the top 30 auditions. After which, the top 30 were selected by Rahman sir. The video of our performances were brought to the mecca of studios - AM Studio in Chennai and played to him. The auditions were in Mumbai and 45 of us were shortlisted.
I cleared that round and made it to top 100. Within two days, I got a message asking me to perform two songs from a list given by them. As mentioned, I sang Tere Bina song and uploaded it on YouTube, two months back. “I chanced upon the invite for auditions on Rahman sir’s Facebook and Twitter pages. She works as a registered behaviour technician for autistic children and has been pursuing Carnatic music for 10 years. City-based Pavithra is the only contestant from Tamil Nadu. It is co-judged by singer Shaan, Vidya Vox and Clinton Cerejo.
The series has 13 episodes and the first aired on November 7. The 22-year-old made it to the top 30 in India’s first YouTube originals reality show called ARRived - AR Rahman’s digital musical reality show. CHENNAI: Performing for a national audience in the presence of music legend AR Rahman is a golden opportunity for any aspiring singer, and Pavithra Balajee is not an exception.