'I'm living a dream'

Making waves

The Wembley Arena, the Birmingham Arena, and the Oscars, of course, are some of the locations she’s performed at. A R Rahman and Snoop Dogg are the musicians, she’s collaborated with. Pussy Cat Dolls have covered her song.  Maybe her planets have lined up just right, or maybe her house has great Feng Shui, one thing’s for sure, Tanvi Shah is riding the wave. “I’m living a dream. I just don’t want to wake up,” she says. But not one to stop a while to bask in the glory of her obvious success, she adds, “I have to move on now. I have to work harder and reach newer heights. There is a lot of expectations and I have to live up to them.”

Ask her if she knew that Jai Ho would become the phenomenon that it has, and she doesn’t even pause before answering, “I had no expectations. All I knew was that Sukhi (Sukhwinder Singh) has a very strong voice and I had to keep up. Rahman sir, is like my Guru. He has always guided me, given me creative space. He said to think out of the box and to sing loudly.” And the rest, as they say, is history. The proof of her popularity is in an undulating Nicole Scherzinger.

Snoop Dogg is the latest artiste to jump on to the Jai Ho bandwagon and Tanvi has lent her voice to the Snoop Dogg Millionaire as well. “I didn’t even know I was singing with Snoop. I walked into the studio and there he was. Snoop has this image of a gangster but he’s the most grounded, hardworking person. He has a great sense of humour,” Tanvi gushes. Speaking of the experience she says, “I like the way they work. Everybody brainstorms and contributes. We were eight people on that table. Finally, Snoop and the producer chose what they wanted.”

Tanvi, who wants to collaborate with artistes such as Gloria Estefan, Kanye West, Andrea Bocelli and Hossam Ramzy, sings in many languages such as Afro-Cuban, Spanish and Arabic. “Language should not be a barrier,” she says. Being of the opinion that singers ought to stay true to the language they sing in, she says, “I work on it. I listen to different versions of the same track. I believe you have no business singing in a language unless you can do it the way it’s meant to be done. Which is why I take the help of friends.’’

Tanvi explores her interests in world music with her band Zahrra. “I’ve been busy and haven’t worked together with my band for a while. I miss it. I love the feel of live performances,’’ she says. No conversation about live performances with Tanvi can be complete without dwelling on stint at the Wembley Arena. Talking about this show, she says, “I was performing alongside Sting and Sade. It was great. But you have to be grounded. You realise that the audience have spent so much money, stood in queue for a long time, you can’t let them down. You have to do a great job.”

Ask her about her upcoming projects and the answer you are likely going to get is “I’m superstitious. I don’t like to talk about my upcoming projects.” What about Kannada movies, you wonder, “I’ll sing in any language but they don’t call me,” she says with a smile.