Popular among Australian youths, this Melbourne based 21 year old Gujarati girl Ashwarya, has a sound that traverses rap and pop, bhangra drumming and R&B trilling.
Today, after just 18 months into singing, Ashwarya has three widely acclaimed singles and hundreds of thousands of fans with over 90,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and over 40,000 followers on TikTok among other social media platforms. With a total six popular songs to her credit so far, she already had four live shows in Melbourne which went with packed houses, where people lined up with an average 20 AUD ticket. The following two shows in Sydney were also sold off, but had to be canceled due to the surge in pandemic there. Ashwarya has also been signed by Australia's leading music companies Sony Music Australia and NOiZE recordings. One of the sizable recent achievements of Ashwarya is accumulating over 3 million streams on her debut EP (Extended Play) – ‘Noctural Hours’. Ashwarya’s songs have also been played several times by the London based Radio Channel BBC Sounds Asian Network.
According to Ashwarya, "last year when the world was in lockdown mode, I started creating music and videos in the confines of my home, using my iPhone and other gadgets. I dropped out of the university to pursue a full time career in music."
Ashwarya's father Mehul Shah who hails from Gujarat was into art and literature enjoying his stage performances during school days in Ahmedabad. When Ashwarya was six months old, Mehul and wife Shalini left with her for Australia. Ashwarya's singing talent comes from her grandmother Jahanvika Shah who lives in Ahmedabd and is a writer, radio presenter and retired banker apart from being a good singer herself. Ashwarya's mother Shalini who hails from Lucknow says, "their visits to her grandparents in Ahmedabad who in turn also visit them regularly, got her oriented to Bollywood movies and music of the 80s. She feels that having both Indian and Australian backgrounds has opened up a whole new perspective for her to work with whilst song writing."
Ashwarya was named among the six joint winners of Australia's popular Levi's music prize by Bigsound. She had won a share of 90,000 AUD in prize money, 15,000 dollars in cash to contribute for career development and a host of other prizes. Ashwarya's song Biryani is getting very high popularity with youngsters right now. She got the idea about the connection of food and love while having her favourite food Biryani, cooked by her mom. Her song Psycho Hole has also been a very big hit.
Talking to Asian Voice Ashwarya says, “Now, I am moving on to more intricate sounds, more nuanced feelings. ‘To The Night’, my first single of 2021, rides the same kind of shapeshifting beat that typifies songs like ‘Psycho hole’, but the feelings are darker, more complex here, arpeggiating synths and skittering beats evoking the neon-toned fantasy world of 'The Weeknd', featuring cult American rapper Vic Mensa, ‘To The Night’ sees my heady internal world clash with the chaotic realities of our lives in the 2020s, resulting in an impassioned, empathetic song that speaks to our moment. ‘To The Night’ is about feeling empowered and taking charge of your decisions and actions,” Ashwarya says. “It's a main character anthem and I hope people can feel like they're in total command whilst listening to it.”
Year 2021 sees the release of Ashwarya’s debut EP Nocturnal Hours, a glamorous and insightful look into the mind of a young pop auteur. The EP is Ashwarya at her purest, and speaks to her ambition to not only become a fixture of the pop landscape, but to stay true to her distinct personality and sound throughout. A few months ago, Vogue magazine listed Ashwarya among the 8 emerging Indian women in the global hip-hop landscape.
