She started singing at the young age of four as a soprano in her church choir, after which there has been no turning back for singer and performer Kenishaa Francis.
She is a critically acclaimed singer who has earned admiration and praise from many across the country. The City girl was one of the contestants on the singing reality show ‘The Stage’.
She is not only a master in singing but also rules the stage with her acting skills.
“My family always encouraged me to be a singer. Both my parents used to sing at church and they introduced me to singing when I was a little kid. My family is musical and I get my singing skills from my mother. She was a singer all her life,” says Kenishaa.
Her musical inspiration, she says, has always been her mother. “In terms of inspiration, I look up to Frank Sinatra, Michael Bublé, Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera. But my mother tops the list,” she says.
She gets along best with Jazz and says, “My forte is Jazz but my voice sits best for Broadway musicals, R&B and Soul. I am learning to play the piano now. This might be late in terms of my career but I believe it’s never too late to learn. My voice used to be my only instrument all these years but now I am trying out something different. I hope that does well for me.”
If not a singer, what would she be doing? “I have been singing for the longest time. If not a singer I would have definitely been a teacher. I am a corporate trainer, so I love teaching and any form of teaching is an art for me. I would have loved to spread knowledge and see how I could contribute to a particular subject. I love working with kids so yes, I would be more specific to kids.”
Her typical day starts at six in the morning, and is followed by rehearsing and taking care of her father.
She shares, “I wake up as early as six in the morning, and rehearse for two hours. Later, I will have a few meetings scheduled, and if there are no meetings, there will definitely be rehearsals with bands or with myself for the upcoming gigs.”
“This goes through the day and then by evening I will get back home and have a some quiet time to myself, take care of my dad and later at night I try and watch a movie or work on a new song,” she adds.
As to how her journey on ‘The Stage’ went, she says, “It was like a massive dream come true, with so many voices from around the country and me being among the top 20, it was a great experience. I actually never thought I would come so far in the show. It was a great thing to be able to work with some of the big names from the industry — Vishal Dadlani, Monica Dogra and more, so however long I stayed on the show, they have showed me immense support, they were extremely kind, appreciative and
encouraging. It just made me keener and made me believe in what I could do.”
Sharing her future plans, she says, “My compositions are on the making right now. Doing something for the Hollywood is in my bucket list. And of course, if I get a chance to work on any Bollywood projects why not. I would definitely love to collaborate with bigger artistes, albums and shows. And eventually do a world tour.”