Anand Mahindra is Thoroughly Impressed by Tanya Wells’ ‘Gulon Mein Rang Bhare’ Ghazal
British Singer Tanya Wells has got a new fan in businessman and chairman of Mahindra group Anand Mahindra.
British Singer Tanya Wells has got a new fan in businessman and chairman of Mahindra group Anand Mahindra.
Despite being a Britisher Tanya sings fluently in Urdu and she’s got no formal training in Urdu.
When she was a young child, she attended a boarding school in Himachal Pradesh in India and that’s how she got familiarized with Hindi. Similarities in both the languages (Hindi and Urdu) helped her to sing in Urdu as well.
In school, she sang bhajans in different languages and that’s how she acquired the flair of singing in different languages.
“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.
Though she doesn’t speak the languages fluently, she has a ear for Indian languages and gradually learned the pronunciation of the words.
She learned Hindustani classical music at the age of 17.
“My interest in ghazals evolved rather recently when I visited India in 2012. I took singing lessons from Guruji Pandit Prabhakar Dhakde. He taught me beautiful Urdu compositions, ghazals and light classical music,” she said in an interview with Tribune.
Mr Mahindra shared the clip of her singing on Twitter and captioned it with these words, “A five-year-old video by British artiste Tanya Wells but I heard it for the first time today. Kitni nazakat hai inki awaaz mein. It changed the quality of this morning… If this is what globalisation is, then bring it on…”
In the clip Tanya Wells can be heard singing ‘Gulon Mein Rang Bhare’ by Pakistani ghazal singer Mehdi Hassan.
Without a doubt Tanya is blessed with a soulful and a captivating voice.
Check her out here:
A five year old video by British artiste Tanya Wells but I heard it for the first time today. Kitni nazakat hai inki awaaz mein. It changed the quality of this morning...If this is what globalisation is, then bring it on... pic.twitter.com/67XCZkujHf
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) June 21, 2021
Her nuanced Urdu performance in the clip has garnered over 34,000 views.
Tanya has her own YouTube channel too and she’s part of a band called Seven Eyes.
Below is the mash up of the song ‘Vande Mataram’ which she performed for the ‘Being Indian’ YouTube channel.