The gorgeous girl behind the voice of the super hit song Sooraj Dooba Hai from the movie Roy, Aditi Singh Sharma spoke to us about her path through the music industry, the hardships she faced, her mom’s role in her musical journey, what she loves to do before her performances, about her bands and a lot more fun stuff.

Were you always inclined towards becoming a musician or was it something that just happened?

As I am told by my mother, I have been singing since I was a baby in my cradle. Instead of crying for milk or to wake them up, I would be singing by myself in the cradle. I feel really lucky that music is something I was born with and I just kept going with it. Performing in grade 1 for the annual day, joining the class choir in school in Moscow, representing high school for music and winning almost all competitions, winning awards in college and then finally forming the band and eventually coming to Bollywood.

Tell us something about the bands you were associated with, Crimson and Level 9.

CRIMSON was the first band I co-formed with my best friend Gaurav Balani (bass player) and was fronting, a rock band with a female vocalist was interesting as our country had very few of them. I loved performing in the Delhi Rock Circuit and I think have performed at mostly all venues possible. I was asked to join Level 9 when their vocalist left the country, so I had a great time performing with them and we even played 2 gigs in Mumbai back then These bands, along with Grove Adda opened Bollywood’s doors for you.

Would you say that you’ve gained a rich experience that you’d have otherwise not got by being a part of these bands?

I think every artist have their own journey. I am not sure how or what I would have done had I not been a part of these bands but I definitely think that my career has been an incredible journey in itself right from performing on stage in school to singing in Moscow in Russian to representing college and judging events to singing in a rock band and then moving to a blues,pop, jazz band and then finally getting to Bollywood – all the bands and stages taught me a lot and of course have made me the artist that I am today.

A thought that goes with female fronting bands is that people end up remembering the singer alone, did that ever happen with you as you’re the only girl in all three bands you’ve been a part of.We have always tried our best for it not to be that way, in fact my best friend Gaurav Balani (bass) and I formed the band together and I think he is such a star. He plays with the rock band Parikrama, he also performs with the amazing Shubha Mudgal and I am lucky that he plays for my setup as well. Even the rest of my band Rahul Tiwari (Keys), Arbaz Khan (Guitars), Vinit Arora (Drums), Anit Bhatt (Percussions) also play for many known artistes like Nakash Aziz, Armaan Malik, Shaan, etc. I think more than it being a gender thing, people do tend to remember the singer more than the others in the band but I do think and hope that they pay equal attention and appreciation to the amazing musicians we share stage with.

How did you step foot into Bollywood?

Bollywood just ‘Happend’ to me. Fronting the rock bands and being so active in the Delhi circuit and being well known for singing and performing in English, I had never thought that few years down the line I would be a playback singer in Bollywood.

I hosted the Jack Daniels Rock Awards in 2007 and 2008, which is where I met Ehsaan Noorani (Shankar Ehsaan Loy) and Vishal Dadlani (Vishal – Shekhar). Ehsaan played my work to Shankar Mahadevan and Loy and they flew me down to Mumbai for my first ever recording in Mumbai for a song in the album ‘High School Musical’. I met Vishal right after the recording as well and got encouragement from all these people. A short while later, I performed in Mumbai with one of the bands and Amit Trivedi was attending my show. He asked me to come to his studio to try my voice on a song, and that song ended up being my debut film song ‘Yahi Meri Zindagi’ in Dev.D

Was it a struggle for you to make your mark in the industry especially since you have no godfather in the industry?

It has been an incredible journey, since 2009 every year listening to a few songs release in my voice. It has been a dream come true really. Of course it was very difficult for me to move base to Mumbai away from my mom and friends who are in Delhi, to live alone here, to meet everyone in the industry, to make friends, to adjust to a completely new city, etc. But with each song, with each experience I learnt something new and till now have kept going.

You have mentioned many a time that your mother is your major source of support and the person behind your success, could you tell us a little bit about your relationship with her?

The Woman behind my success is obviously my Mother ,my Momma. She is the reason why I am here today. I mean literally she is the reason I’m in this world and also because why I stand where I stand as a playback singer in Bollywood. She is the one who gave me the Strength , the Courage, the Confidence to always do what you want to do and do what always feels right and do the right thing. Otherwise it would have been impossible for someone like me sitting in Delhi, performing with rock bands and singing in English to suddenly just move to another city where I don’t even know how to pronounce or spell names of places to suddenly move to this level. I sometimes sit and think about it and it seems pretty difficult and also pretty undoable but nothing is undoable and I have done this and this all thanks to her love and support. Thank you Momma!

You were singing rock, pop and blues before Bollywood, was it hard for you to get used to Bollywood in the beginning?

It was a little new actually, instead of it being difficult. I have not entirely grown up in India and once I came back, I was singing in English for bands, so Bollywood was ‘New’ but I really worked hard on it, on every aspect of it. I think my style was always natural but I worked on my diction, my pronunciations, and small things as each song required.

You’ve sung in Japanese, French, Russian, Spanish, Marathi and Hindi, obviously and looks like you are a natural in it. How do you overcome the language barrier?

I LOVE to travel and I love languages. I think it is something that I have picked up from my dad. We lived in Warsaw (Poland) when I was in kindergarten and I was put in a Polish one, then when I was in Moscow (Russia) I went to a Russian school and I kept picking up whatever was given to me. I have attempted any languages that is given to me, I only need a supervisor who can help me with pronunciations, otherwise I am very happy to sing in any language.

How do you handle competition?

I don’t really believe in competition. Most of my contemporaries are my friends, and we all have very different styles of singing. I really feel that if a song is meant to be mine – it will be.

You came from performing on the stage to singing in a studio, which was harder to settle in and get used to?

Ever since I can remember, I have been performing on stage – annual day in 1st grade, performing with the school choir in Moscow, winning all the competitions in high school and college in Delhi and then the bands. I always felt that I was the most at home on stage until I started recording in studios. I fell in love all over again. I always say that being a stage performer and a studio artist are like two different jobs, every good playback singer might not be a great stage performer and vice versa. I honestly love both equally as they are different experiences for me and I am trying to get better at both of them.

You’ve performed on stage for quite some time now, what has been your pre-performance ritual, if you have any because you bring in a lot of energy into your performances.

Thank you for the compliment. Well I don’t really have a ritual as such, as everyone around me would vouch for – I am a huge tea lover. The only thing I would ask for backstage or before a show in my room would be tea, that’s about it really because the schedule is so hectic most of the times you fly in and have to check sound and get ready and rush and meet someone or the band and before you know it it is time to get on stage. So I would say tea and listening to more music before the show.

Do you follow a diet regime to keep your voice intact all the time?

One breakfast food that you must have is eggs and if you are a vegetarian then oats. I love to have fried eggs or an omelet in the morning to not make it boring not make it monotonous every day, I started having oats and cornflakes. And in oats I tried this new way of making oats in water and adding milk and peanut butter to it. So it is a peanut butter flavored oats and you can also add any fruits or anything that you want to have. I usually have my cereal with cold milk and add lots of fruits and nuts and stuff in it. So lots of options for breakfast .

I have started having mini meals because we travel so much and there is so much to do. So before sound check or before the show and after mini meals could contain of fruits, I have started having a lot of soup which I have loved as a kid. I have completed my kindergarten in Poland and in Warsaw when I used to go to school our snack in the school used to be soup so I strongly created a liking for soup. So yes, fruits, soup, healthy nuts or I just make myself a peanut butter sandwich with brown bread. This could be either with organic honey or peanut butter with strawberry jam. Or just have one one egg with brown bread which does not turn out to be too heavy. Sometimes i even manage to make some smoothies.

I don’t really follow a diet plan it never really works for me because I love food so much and I know that even if I go on a diet for three days it is all going to come back because I love food. So I have just started controlling my portions, like I eat everything that I want to but have less of it. I do have my crazy moments, like I remember I had finished an entire bar of that gigantic dairy milk at one go. So that is the diet plan, eat everything in moderation and try not eating late.

Even if it’s like choosing a favorite child, which is that one song you’ve sung and absolutely love?

That is the one question I have never been able to answer. Each song has been an incredible experience for me and I have been so lucky to work with so many music directors and lyricists, it is impossible to choose a favorite. I have started asking the fans on social media and they also reply with 3 or 4 songs at one go; no one seems to name one.

Have you thought about venturing into something new like making your own album with your own compositions?

Not as of now, I don’t think I am a good composer yet. But these things just happen when they are meant to and can happen anytime. So maybe someday.

Lastly, what are your future projects?

Nothing concrete as of now. Last year ‘Sooraj Dooba Hain’ was one of the biggest songs of the year and I am really happy about the songs that have released this year – Bekhudi, High Heels’; Oye Oye. Will just wait and hope to record more.

Rapid Fire

The song on loop on your playlist

Sorry (Justin Bieber)

Best food you’ve ever cooked (Yes, we know it from Instagram)

There are a few of those dishes as I always cook with the ingredients available to me, but I would say one of my best – ‘Cheese Omelette’.

Place you’d like to visit but haven’t yet

Spain, Italy, France and a lot more of Europe.

On stage or in studio?

Record it in the studio and then perform it on stage 🙂

Rock, pop or Bollywood?

I’m poppin’ to rock Bollywood 🙂

Aditi Singh Sharma known for her versatile singing will be heard in what would be her first single. The song is called Befikra, it is composed by Meet Bros and lyrics are by Kumar. The music video of the song was shot in Paris featuring Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani. Befikra is by far the best performing in recent times and has crossed numerous views. This year has truly been awesome for Aditi with hit Bollywood songs n her single also doing well.