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Features |  07 Mar 2009 15:46 |  By RnMTeam

Femme power to the fore!

These women have shown that they are capable of holding their own in a sector oft dominated by men. In the last one year, they have won titles and honours or have helped get push the cause of music in the country and abroad, in one way or another.

Radioandmusic.com profiles and salutes the women in music who dared to make a difference....

Sourabhee Debbarma

Petite Sourabhee Debbarma made Indian Idol history by becoming the first female to win the grand finale of the fourth season. Sourabhee belted out popular numbers confidently to beat Torsha Sarkar and army man Kapil Thapa.

Saurabhee Debbarma hails from Agartala,Tripura and was born in 1985 to a couple of Twipra (Indigenous people of Tripura) descent. She walked away the proud winner of Rs 10 million contract with Sony Entertainment Television after winning the show based on public voting.

Sourabhee insists that she is an artist and not a singer stating that she is open to all kinds of offers but believes that singing will always be her first preference. Her journey to success, she says, was not an easy one. Her parents wanted her to concentrate on her studies and this would upset her. She also says that it was surprising state of affairs as it was her father who registered for Indian Idol.

Having become a household name at such a young age, Sourabhee says that she is very excited about her future and is looking forward to winning hearts all over the world.

Shubha Mudgal

India's first music expo had it all - from independent labels, music instrument makers, event organizers to experts speaking on important issues like intellectual copyright laws. Shubha Mudgal and Dr. Aneesh Pradhan had organized the three day music expo Baajaa Gaajaa at the Ishanya Mall on the outskirts of Pune. Through this, they brought everything under one roof for musicians and music entrepreneurs. Even though Baajaa Gaajaa as an initiative has just started, Mudgal says it will be an annual event and might even be staged abroad the next time round – great going!

Darshana Soumya

For the first time, two carnatic vocalists would be participating in the most influential music festivals South by South West in Austin, Texas.

The duo Darshana and Soumya were invited for South by South West after their audio samples were chosen by the SXSW producers. It's a big achievement, since none of the Indian classical musicians have performed at the festival before them. The duo will be accompanied by a violinist and Mridangam player on their tour.

Vaishali Made

Zee Saregamapa Challenge 2009 winner Vaishali Made became the first female to win the coveted title. Prior to the Zee Saregamapa Challenge, Made was also the winner of Zee Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Marathi competition.

Vaishali entered Zee Saregamapa Challenge directly via a wild card entry in the top 14 and was anxious about the audiences accepting her. She joined Himesh Reshammiya's Rock Gharana on was declared the winner of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009.

Vaishali hails from a very small town in Amaravati district, called Khartale where basic needs like water supply are not available for the inhabitants.

For pursuing professional training, Vaishali would have to go to Amaravati city which was difficult due to her economical status. To fulfill her desire, she used to sing at small family functions, weddings etc.

The star-eyed singer got married and  came to Mumbai, the land of opportunities and was encouraged by her husband to pursue professional singing. Made has said in an interview that her husband wanted to see her as a 'Successful singer' and supported her to take up music seriously. She maintains that without him her success was just impossible.

Having been rejected entry in Zee Marathi Saregamapa 2006, Vaishali took up to classical music in 2006 from Pt Ajay Pohankar. Finally she got selected for Zee Marathi Saregamapa, 2007 season and eventually won the Zee Saregamapa Challenge 2009.

It is known that during her time in Zee Saregampa Challenge, Vaishali had to babysit her six month old daughter. Vaishali has now won won a R five million music contract with Zee TV and has got offers for playback singing in Hindi and Marathi films.

Penaz Masani

Indian ghazal singer Penaz Masani, who started singing in 1981 was honoured with the Padma Shree award on 26 January 2009.

In her career, she has won a number of awards, including the title of 'Shehzadi Tarunnam' , by the state government of Uttar Pradesh (1996 and the 11th 'Kalakar Award' for 'Outstanding Contribution to Music', in 2002. Having graduated from Mumbai University, Masani has worked as a playback singer for Bollywood, in more than 50 Hindi movies and sung in over 10 languages. Under the aegis of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, she has performed in countries as far reaching as Germany, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Vietnam.

Penaz was born in a family with a sound classical music background; her father was a discpile of Ustad Faiyaz Khansahab of the Agra gharana. Penaz had her initial lessons from Ustad Amanat Hussein Khan and later became a disciple of India's famed ghazal exponent Madhurani.

She was noticed by famous composer late Jaidev after she won the Sur Singar Samsad contest in 1978. Jaidev took a keen interest in the young artiste and encouraged her which resulted in Penaz's maiden success on TV. Since the glorious introduction, Penaz has sung and participated in countless prestigious programs on Doordarshan, Star TV, and Zee TV.

It was in 1981 that she took her first steps into the arena of ghazal music and since then has cut over 20 discs and sung in over 10 languages.

Masani has also been a playback singer for the Indian Cinema and has performed under the banner of music directors like Jaidev, R D Burman, Usha Khanna, Chand Pardesi, Nadeem Shravan, Raaj Kamal, Rajesh Roshan and Anu Malik. She has sung for over 50 hindi films and has been privileged to perform with renowned south Indian music virtuoso Dr Balamurali Krishnan in a Tamil film.

Penaz eventually shaped her repertoire to and entered the realm of pop Music with her album "Tu Dil De De" which topped the charts on the Asian Television's Channel V and MTV Channels. The music for this album was composed by Canada- based composer Rehman Rajan and the album was recorded in Toronto. Masani also toured many countries of the Middle East, Latin America and the U.S., Australia, Bhutan, Mauritius, Seychelles, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Fiji and the UK, she became the first female artiste who has held solo performances running into a record 500 in India alone.

Penaz is today one of the first ghazal singers to have been awarded a Platinum disc, in addition to three Gold Discs that she has already received.

Monica Dogra

Shaair + Func are an alternative electronica duo from Mumbai  Monica Dogra who goes by the name of Shaair, comes from a New York Broadway background.

As the winner of best female vocalist at the Jack Daniels Rock Awards of 2009, Monica Dogra is soaring high with the success of her music. Randolph Correia who is Func... in the duo is best known as the producer and guitarist for Indian rock band Pentagram and has also produced tracks for many Bollywood blockbusters  Their debut album New Day : The love album... was lapped up by music enthusiasts around the world.

Monica says that she has experienced hard times in the industry but she loves that all her hard work has paid off. She feels the truest part of her which is her music has been recognized globally and considers her work to be more of a universal offering to her fans.

Hailing from New York, Monica has experienced the music scene in both the East and the West. According to her, the independent music scene in India is more developed and believes that the music industry boasts of more intelligent and forward thinking individuals.

She says that in the West she was judged for her looks and a lot of people she dealt with were more interested in the marketability of looks. According to her, the formula for her success has been creating music that is both strong and sincere and this has allowed her to make an impact on the music scene.

She gains inspiration from a lot of women in the music industry but her idol is Bjork, a singer-songwriter from Iceland. She feels that anyone who is fierce and clear about who they are and who can somehow translate it into their music is inspiring.

Speaking on whether looks are important to make it big in this day and age, she that she would be lying if she said they don't. Elaborating further on this she says that most of the time the first reaction that people have towards anyone new is superficial.

Riding high on the success of her first two albums, she feels that people are finally listening to what she has to say and they respect her now for her intelligence and individualism.

She writes songs from the heart that in many ways express her views on life and various issues that are being dealt with in today's world.

Monica says that winning Best Female Vocalist at the Jack Daniels Rock Awards last month in Mumbai was both humbling and amazing. When she had started out in the music industry there had been no category for female vocalists in general so now she is thrilled that in less than 2 years there is actually a category that is dedicated to females and that so much talent has surfaced in such little time.

She is overjoyed with all the support that she has received from her fan base around the world and strongly believes that it gives her the kind of motivation that allows her to explore and create more amazing music.

Monica is very excited about her third album which will be released in a few months after production.

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