'When Scared, I Replay Sinatra'
BENGALURU: After sending in the recording of her singing Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me To The Moon in March, Nilanjanaa Jayant’s family was anxious until the response came a month later.
At the age of six, Nilanjanaa started training in Carnatic music. However, soon she realised that she could do better in Western music.
At a competition held in her apartment complex, she won the first place for her rendition of a Whitney Houston number.
“Her performance left the judges mesmerised,” recalls Nilanjanaa’s father Jayant Ananth.
Soon, she joined Taaqademy, where she was trained by Ragini Ramanathan, and emerged victorious at the Golden Voices of America competition.
Her musical genes come from her maternal and paternal grandmothers, who also sing.
Her audition tape led to her being declared a winner in the Musical/Theatre/Disney/Broadway/Jazz category.
“We had originally decided on the song Dream A Little Dream by Ella Fitzgerald but then switched to Sinatra’s Fly Me To The Moon. I added a lot of my own modifications to the song,” Nilanjanaa says.
She will be performing it at Carnegie Hall too.
The eighth grader, who goes to The Samhita Academy on Bannerghatta Road, is also an artist. She composes her own songs, makes drawings, dances and acts too.
Nilanjanaa is also a part of Taaqademy’s band of musicians aged 11-16, Sandstorm. She’s learning to play the keyboard, which she says is her favourite instrument.
“If I could choose one instrument that would compliment my singing at a performance, it would be a piano”, she says.
Nilanjanaa has given many solo as well as group performances through her academy. She also performed solo on World Music Day at Alliance Francaise.
The young artiste is working hard in preparation for her performance in October. “I practise for an hour every day. I also go to Taaqademy once a week. My teachers help me improvise,” she says.
How does she feel about being the youngest performer from India? “It is exciting as well as nerve-wracking! But I’m going to give my best”, she says.
Nilanjanaa admits to having stage fright. “When I get scared, I go over the lyrics of the song in my head,” she says.
She thanks her parents and her friends at school and the apartment building for their support.
The budding talent has also landed a music scholarship for a course in Germany later this year.