By Akanksha Sharma
British-based singer and songwriter Tanya Wells won the hearts by singing the National song of India 'Vande Matram'.
Recently, she did a cover of famous Gazal 'Gulon mein rang bhare' written by Faiz Ahmed Faiz and sung by Mehndi Hassan. She posted this cover on Facebook in April and it grabbed the attention of more than 1 million viewers. Viewers were amazed by her surprisingly good pronunciation skills and despite no formal training in Urdu.
Tanya wells lived in India for three years, attending school in the foothills of Himalayas. She later returned to learn Indian classical music (including light classical, thumri, bhajan and gazal) and has performed originally in a number of clubs and festivals on the Indian sub-continent. "The sound of Urdu is similar to Hindi, I can pick up the sound because I am more familiar with Hindi," she said in an interview conducted by RFA/RL.
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Tanya continues to draw upon personal experience, writing and performing songs that express a range of diverse cultural influences. Right now, she resides and works in London.
She also did a beautiful cover of Mehndi Hassan's song 'Rafta Rafta who mere' and left people in an awe with her beautiful voice.
Tanya has recently been involved in a number of live performances, accompanied by guest appearance with Natacha Atlas at Ronnie Scott's , performing vocals for Anoushka Shankar at the Cannes Film Festival and opening for Joss Stone, Nitin Sawhney and Nicki Wells (her twin) at Mama Stones.
Akanksha is a student of journalism in New Delhi, currently interning with NewsGram. Twitter: @Akanksha4117