KOCHI: When Janaki Easwar turned the four chairs on The Voice in 2021, little did the then 12-year-old, the youngest in the history of the Australian music reality show, knew what it meant back in India. With her viral rendition of American singer Billie Eilish’s Lovely, Janaki captured many hearts.
The multilingual singer-songwriter born to Divya Raveendran and Anoop Divakaran, who hails from Kozhikode, moved to Melbourne 15 years ago. The young talent has been on the radar since 2021.
However, the pandemic-induced lockdown did hinder a few of her big-stage opportunities.“The borders were closed. And even during the blind audition of The Voice in Sydney, which was held after five rounds of the selection process, we had to take special permission to go out for shoots,” says Anoop.
As restrictions eased, the next biggest gig that came her way was the T20 World Cup finale. Janaki brought an Indian flavour at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, along with the Australian rock band Icehouse and Zimbabwea-born artist Thando Sikwila.
However, while focusing on her solo covers on Spotify and other projects, Janaki, now 14, also aspired to be a part of the Malayalam film industry. And her wish has come true. Now, Janaki has made her singing debut in Mollywood with G Prajesh Sen’s directorial The Secrets of Women. The track, rendered in English, is penned by Janaki herself.“Music director Joshwa V J was looking for someone who could write and sing in English. He chose me due to my performance in The Voice,” says Janaki.
Janaki admits that the song, which has an upbeat and hopeful nature, was hard to deliver. “I wrote the lines exclusively for this song. Whenever I wrote, the lyrics sounded sad. Usually, I don’t write songs in this genre. I made the song within three days from the melody sample the music director had sent,” Janaki adds. The song, which hasn’t been released yet, had an official launch in Kozhikode in March.
“My coach David Jaanz motivated me to write songs. He believes it makes an artist complete. I was too young to know much, so I put myself in others’ shoes and wrote about their experiences. Around 10, I started writing about family and societal issues, the kind I read in books, saw in movies, and taking inspiration from other artists,” says Janaki.
However, it was difficult for her to bring out the core message of the song, giving hope to the women characters in the movie. “I had to deliver the song on a positive note. Once I understood its vibe, I smiled so hard to get my voice upbeat while recording, so it doesn’t turn out to be sad,” she quips.
Janaki started training in Carnatic music at the age of six under Shobha Shekhar of Kalakrithi Music, and at nine, she began her training in Western music under David Jaanz of Jaanz International Music Academy.
As someone who is trying to uphold her Indian roots, Janaki aspires to render songs in native languages. “So far, it has been English. Also, I have an interest to sing in the movies,” Janaki concludes.