It was the year 2013. A girl with a kazoo was singing Dard-e-Disco on television screens across the country. For those who watched Indian Idol Junior I, the image might rush back in a split second – 10-year-old Anjana, turning a very familiar Bollywood dance number into a performance of her own.
The instrument became her calling card, and the girl behind it a household name. Thirteen years later, at 23, the very same ‘kazoo girl’ is returning to music with a different story to tell through her debut five-track EP – Yes No Maybe?
She was just 10 when she won the first season of Indian Idol Junior. Back then, music was about learning songs, stepping on stage and enjoying the validation that came with a performance. However, growing up changed the way she saw it. She began learning music more seriously, developing a connection with the art form and eventually wanting to create songs of her own. “When I was part of the show, I was literally 10 years old. I loved music, but I didn’t think too much about a lot of things. It was about going on stage, performing a song and getting validated for the performance,” she recalls.
Over the years, the idea of composing her own music kept evolving with her. While travelling, melodies would often come to her, and she would record them on her phone, saving them for a time when she could return to them. Eventually, a song camp in Dharamsala, where the group came up with around 20 to 25 short musical ideas, helped the process take shape. Among the songs was Rijhaaun, which gave her a sense of direction. “I was exploring different sounds and genres, trying to find my core sound and where I really feel at home as an artiste and Rijhaaun was the core strategy. It explores the journey of how we, as individuals, have these prejudices in our heads about how we see ourselves,” she says, adding, “Especially for someone who has been on TV, there is a lot of love but there are things that might make you not feel so good about yourself. I used to get affected by a lot of things. So Rijhaaun comes from the angle of trying to fight your own internal battles and trying to believe in yourself.”
The result is Yes No Maybe?, an EP that follows the uncertainty, questions and shifting emotions that come with love. As she believes, love extends beyond romance to friendships, other relationships and the one people often overlook – the relationship they have with themselves while exploring it through her music.
The songs draw from personal experiences and observations, with Rijhaaun exploring insecurities and the weight of other people’s opinions. Having grown up in the public eye, Anjana has experienced the affection that comes with being recognised, alongside the challenges of navigating others’ perceptions. Making the EP changed how she sees herself, as she notes, “My relationship with myself has become stronger. Kaise Main Kahun deals with realising that unless I find myself, I can’t take something forward. And then Azaad is about proving myself.” She hopes listeners who hear all five tracks will find themselves believing in who they are, too.
Looking back at the kazoo phase, she shares, it began as a way to improve her breath control. “I started playing it in Class IX so I could sing longer phrases. When that particular episode of Indian Idol happened, I wanted to try something interesting. I started being called the ‘kazoo girl’, and everywhere I go, the first question people ask, ‘Have you brought your instrument? Are you going to play it today?’”
Returning to Indian Idol too as an adult was, in many ways, a homecoming. With a changed voice and years of musical training behind her, she saw the senior edition as an opportunity to show audiences how she had evolved. “In Junior, the experience was from the lens of a child. As an adult, it is a much more serious competition and staying confident,” she says. Now, as she begins her journey as an independent artiste, Anjana hopes the EP will encourage listeners to embrace themselves through life’s uncertainties. “Self-love is such an underrated chapter,” she says.