Shivranjani Singh

Early life (1994–2008)

Shivranjani was born and raised in Himachal Pradesh, district Mandi, later moving to Mumbai. She belongs to Himachal Pradesh with Mandi being her hometown. Her father, Shakti Singh, had a musical background with a few albums and Bollywood releases during a varied career as a cricketer and government official. Her mother, Mala Singh, is a business woman with many awards for her green-entrepreneurship.

Shivranjani had always excelled at singing, dancing and acting during her schooling. She started considering singing as a career when she participated in a 2008 reality-television singing-contest, Hannah Montana – The Big Pop Star Dream, on Disney Channel. She emerged as the winner amongst 2 lakh (200,000) participants from across India. Among her prizes was a trip to Los Angeles to meet the cast of Hannah Montana and see the shooting of an episode, and a Gibson guitar signed by Miley Cyrus. Shivranjani met Miley Cyrus on her birthday (27 August). She was also featured on the cover of Disney Adventures magazine and shot a music video which aired on Disney Channel.

Early career (2009–2014)

Shivranjani decided to first finish her studies, and was preparing for higher studies abroad when music director Gaurav Dargaonkar asked her to sing in the film Sixteen. At the same time she was also dubbing for many other music directors. She chose to continue her studies in Mumbai while taking any singing opportunity she received.

In 2013, Shivranjani Singh began studying biochemistry while pursuing her singing dream. She was also offered acting assignments for television and small-budget movies but maintained that she only wanted to pursue singing. She recorded songs with music directors Ankit Tiwari and Amjad-Nadeem.

Bollywood and America (2015–present)

Her first big break was offered to her by music director Rochak Kohli for the film Welcome to Karachi. She had 2 songs in the film: "Lalla Lalla Lori" with Vishal Dadhlani and "Boat ma" with Mika Singh. She followed this with Baankey Ki Crazy Baraat, in which she sang "Baby Modern Modern" with Sonu Nigam for music director Vijaya Shanker. For the musical Hate Story 3, she had her first solo song, "Love To Hate You", for music-director Amaal Mallik. Meanwhile, she was invited to perform with music duo Sajid–Wajid, joining them on their Unstoppable tour of America. Shivranjani also recorded "Feed My Soul" with Florida-based music producers Cody Morris and Sudeep Sinha, which was well received by the underground Trap music scene in the US.

On 1 January 2016, Shivranjani's item song "Oh Boy" was released, with Wajid Khan, from the movie Kyaa Kool Hain Hum 3. Composed by Sajid–Wajid, the song had much publicity as the singing debut of actress Mandana Karimi from Big Boss 9 fame, and the controversial nature of the film, dubbed India's first porn com. Shivranjani came into prominence with this song, and also sang the title track of the movie with Benny Dayal. She is currently working with many music directors and performing in various events and live shows across the country.

Musical style and influences

Shivranjani grew up listening to artists of the west like Beyoncé, Shakira, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, and is thus primarily a western vocalist. Her independent music consists of pop ballads and melodic-EDM. She began making covers of songs like "Titanium" by Sia and "Underneath your Clothes" by Shakira. She writes and composes her own English tracks. Bollywood music was always a part of her influences as her father was a singer. However, she has only recently begun learning Hindustani classical music. Her greatest role model from the Indian music scene is Lata Mangeshkar. Her favourite vocalist from the west is Christina Aguilera. Her favourite music directors, as she calls them her favourite five, from Bollywood are A.R. Rehman, Sajid–Wajid, Amit Trivedi, Pritam and Vishal-Shekhar. It is her dream to record with all five of them.

Name change

Early in her career, Shivranjani went by the stage name "Shivi" in songs such as "Lalla Lalla Lori" and "Boat ma". She started using her full real name in her official song credits, which is also a raag in Hindustani classical music. She still uses the stage name Shivi for her international music releases.

Independent music