Grabbing the world's attention with Pop, Rock & Soul

Demi HEWAMANNA

She began her career just like any other rising pop singer in the music industry. And she took the country by storm with her unique voice and the way she brought life into her performance on stage and on video. Today, she is ready to take the 'world' by storm with her first and also Sri Lanka's first English solo album - Rock the World.

With three albums, Oba Magemai, Sandawathuren and Daas Paanawa already released in the past years, Ashanthi has highlighted her name in most parts of Europe, Australia and of course our neighbouring country, India.

Rock the World has been released globally for the first time with Universal Music India part of the Universal Music Group. All this happened when Universal Music India and SAARC Managing Director Devraj Senyal heard her demo and knew that this is something that has to be heard by the world. "Ultimately it is the hit that determines the artist and we have been trained to sniff that hit", Devraj said at the launch of Ashanthi's album.

I got the chance to speak to Ashanthi about her new album and what she has planned up for this year.

"I felt that there was a need for something in English in Sri Lanka and coming from a western background I needed to create something that could show the South Asians that we too can create something and enter the international market like A R Rahman, Jay Sean", Ashanthi stated.

"It took me six months to create, write, produce and record the album. This is a self produced album together with my Studio Engineer Shenal Maddumage at my recording studio Ethno Entertainment Studios. Rock the World is about taking Asia globally and showing the world what Asia can offer. The album is a stepping stone for the international industry and contains songs of every genre", Ashanthi added.

Devraj Senyal had heard my music before and I met up with him to talk about the album and then I presented him with a demo of my songs which he then took to his bosses. Devraj said that they need something with substance to recognize the artist. This is where she got together with Benny Dayal who is one of India's Best Contemporary artistes to perform the song Lets Give Peace a Chance that is actually sung in four languages - English/Hindi/Sinhala/Tamil. The video of the song will be released to local channels soon. "The video was shot in Sri Lanka and it was completed in two days. We explored on a full on rock song and going into the Indian rock scene and keeping an ethnic melody - East meet West. It was my concept to do a video with children. I wrote this song with optimism", she went on to say. This song was featured as Official theme song for the De Paix Yatra peace project. This is about promoting peace among youth across 8 nations and also honouring unsung war heroes through a journey on a motorbuke from India to UK.

She has collaborated with Randhir to perform All Over You which is the third song in the album and is a dance track. Reshmonu is an artiste in Malaysia and who she knew for a long time and always wanted to do collaboration with. "This is a guy who is on MTV Asia and has an awesome exposure and a guy who maintains a lot of class", Ashanthi added.

She sings Letting Your Love which is the second track on the album and takes things on a slow ballad with Ashanthi.

It was in the year 1998 that she first set her voice on stage with the ever so famous duo Bathiya and Santhush. She together with BnS was in the same music class of Marianne singers and she was the youngest singer in the professional choir group. It was then that she spoke to Bathiya about making an album and after Ranga Dassanayake invited her to do the album...she was able to release her first song Oba Magemai with Ranidu and the rest followed on.

Ashanthi said that in school (Ladies College) there was a strict policy about doing shows etc and she had to wait till she finished her school to release her album and all. It was her teacher Sharmini Wettimuny who changed the way she used to think and who flourished the music in school. She took everyone's strength and made it into an unimaginable strength and giving everyone an equal chance.

In 2004 Ashanthi travelled abroad and she had gone to Yugoslavia to participate in a competition in which they won second place. There they spent two weeks chilling out.

Ashanthi together with BnS is always out of the country at least half of the year. This year she has covered at least 15 countries.

Ashanthi has won many awards in her career span. Recently she won the Best Pop Act Gold at the Bite My Music Global Music awards (Grammy's of independent international music), Best Female Singer Gold at IndieGoMusic Awards Asia, Best Pop Act of Asia Silver, Best hip Hop Act of Asia Silver, Honorary award for Most Creative and Innovative act (2011) and Best Baila Music Video of the year at the Papare Derana Music Video Awards. She also won the TOYP Award for her Contribution in Music and Arts last week.

Ashanthi released a single - Raavanan Raajyam with Dinesh K for the UK movie Tooting Broadway which was also a selection for the London Indian Film Festival premiered in June. Other than performing on stage or being at the studio, Ashanthi loves being with the children.

Because of this, she opened her very own Montessori and Arts Centre - Melodious Minds, where children get the chance to express their creativity and talent. Beginning from 1 and half years and going up to 6 years the programmes are based on the Early Years Montessori Class, the Montessori Class and the Kindergarten programme. Already they have 15 children at the Montessori.

Ashanthi's school is also the only authorized institution with the Trinity College Pop Rock programme which endorses the programme and is an internationally recognized certificate.