A master list of India's female indie and pop songwriters and composers: A guide for fans and festival programmers

This is less a column than a list. But it’s an important one.

A couple of days before Women’s Day, I read about UK music rights collection society PRS For Music’s 100 Women Changing Music chart, which listed that country’s most popular female songwriters and composers of 2019 based on the number of times their tunes had been streamed, downloaded, broadcast and performed over the last year.

It prompted me to think about whether I could come up with the names of 100 women songwriters and composers working in India’s independent and pop music industries. After including Indian-origin acts, my list comprised 110 names. (Note that unlike PRS For Music, I did not count the members of duos and groups separately.)

I knew of course that this tally was far from comprehensive. It left out, for instance, several artists from the country’s many regional-language music scenes. So I shared the list on Facebook , tagged a number of industry folk, made the post public and asked viewers to comment with the names of female performers who write their own lyrics and music. In just a few hours, I got almost 100 suggestions, which I added to an updated list, which is currently double the size of the original.

I’m not sure if some people misunderstood how it was put together but I couldn’t find writing or composing credits for more than 30 out of the vocalists whose names were proposed. In some cases, however, the singers simply hadn’t been given their due. For example, Suzanne D’Mello of a cappella ensemble RaagaTrippin’ mentioned that she’s written the English lyrics for many of the Bollywood tracks she’s sung.

There’s also a lack of adequate metadata for Indian music releases. Lyricists’ and producers’ names are missing from most audio streaming services. This information is usually provided to them by the labels or in the case of independent acts, the artists themselves so it’s a pan-industry issue.

There have been countless articles written about the reasons why there’s such a huge gender imbalance in our music industry – I’ve dedicated two previous columns to it, one each in 2018 and 2019 – so I won’t go over them again. My list was written to show the nation’s festival programmers – who frequently cite the scarcity of talent as the main reason for the paltry percentages of women in their line-ups – that there are far more female artists than perceived. Maybe they aren’t looking hard enough.

Sadly, we find ourselves at a time when we can’t say for sure if any Indian music festivals will take place this year, but that doesn’t make this list, which now has nearly 230 names, any less relevant. Given that we’ve all been left with more time on our hands during these weeks of social distancing, I recommend taking the opportunity to randomly pick an artist whose music you have never heard before and explore their repertoire.

Unsurprisingly, there are a disproportionate number of singer-songwriters but you might also discover electronic music producers, rappers, instrumentalists and even a couple of classical musicians. While a few of them have populated their YouTube channels with covers and mash-ups of other people’s tunes and just a stray original or two, the majority have at least an EP’s worth of tracks uploaded on streaming services.

The list, by its very nature, is one that will keep growing but because I had multiple requests to publish it somewhere apart from Facebook, I decided to make it the subject of my column. Here it is, with 225 names as of the end of March 2020. (For those who chance upon it in the months and years to come, know that you can see an updated version here .)

Aabha Hanjura Aarifah Rebello Aastha Atray Aayushi Karnik* Abilasha Sinha* Aditi Ramesh Aditi Singh Sharma Agent Akrti Alexis D’Souza Alisha Batth Alisha Pais Amanda Sodhi Amani Kerr Ambika Nayak Ambili Menon Amrit Kaur* Ananya Birla Ananya Sharma (Queendom) Andrea Jeremiah Andrea Tariang Anisha Lakshmanan Anisha Uppal Anjali Sankaran (Atlas and the Sky) Anju Brahmasmi Anmol Malik Annette Philip* Anokha S Kumar (Ink Of Bard) Anoushka Shankar* Anushka Jagtiani Anushka Manchanda (NUKA) Anusha Ramasubramoney (Second Sight) Anushree Gupta (Sukanti and Anushree) Arati Rao-Shetty Aria Nanji Aruna Jade Arunaja Banat Kaur Barbie Rajput Bawari Basanti Bianca Gomes Bianca Love* Bindhu Malini Brecilla Dsouza (My Kind Of Blue/Queendom) Caralisa Monteiro Chandana Bala Kalyan Chhavi Sodhani Chinmayi Tripathi Deane Sequeira Dee MC Deveshi Sahgal Ditty DJ Paroma Dot. Fame Sangma Fluro Gaya Tideman* Geetu Hinduja Gouri and Aksha Gowry Lekshmi GrapeGuitarBox (Teenasai Balamu) Gwen Dias Hanita Bhambri Hard Kaur Harshdeep Kaur Hiral Viradia Ila Arun Ipshita Roy Isheeta Chakravarty Janvi Anand* Jasleen Aulakh Jasleen Royal Jasmine Chandla Jasmine Jethwa* Jerusha Rai* Kaleekarma Kalpana Patowary Kalyani Kamakshi Khanna Kanchan Daniel Kanika Kapoor Karshni Kavita Seth Kavya Trehan (Mosko) Kaysee aka Kabyashree Bora Keertana Bhoopal/KetoNation Kimberley Rodrigues Komorebi Krameri Lopa Mudra L’nee Golay* Madame Gandhi* Madhuri Jagadeesh (Moon Arra) MADM Mali Manasi Scott Manta Sidhu MC Manmeet Kaur Meba Ofilia Meera Desai Mekkoh/The Vinyl Records Merlin D’Souza Mohini Dey Monali Thakur Monica Dogra Mridula Varier Naaz Sultana Nandini Srikar Naom Chhangte (Jenny and the Cinematics) Natania Lalwani* Neecia Majolly Neha Bhasin Nirali Kartik (Maati Baani) Nirmika Singh Nisa Shetty Nitika Kurian Noni Mouse Nooran Sisters Noush Like Sploosh* Nupur Pant Nush Lewis Ose* Paloma Majumdar (Paloma and Adil) Pardafash Paroma Dasgupta Pavitra Chari (Shadow and Light) Plastic Parvati Pooja Mazoomdar Pragnya Wakhlu Pranita NP Prakti Prarthana Sen Pratichee Mohapatra Priya Darshini* Priya Sairaya Pulpy Shilpy Rachita Arora Radha Thomas Raia Raja Kumari* Ramya Pothuri Rasika Shekar Rashmeet Kaur Raveena Aurora* Reble Reema Gadani Retromist Richa Sharma Rika* Rinky Sharma Ritu Agarwal Saachi Saba Azad (Madboy/Mink) Saltwater Sandunes Sanoli Chowdhury Sanjeeta Bhattacharya Shashaa Tirupati Sayantika Ghosh Sentirenla Lucia Shakthisree Gopalan Shalini Mohan (Ginny & the Bottle) Shazneen Arethna Shia O.G. Shibani Kashyap Shilpa Ananth* Shireen Ghosh (Whale In The Pond) Shirley Setia Shivani Ahlowalia Shraddha Pandit Shrinidhi Ghatate Shruti Pathak Shubhangi Joshi Shubha Mudgal Shubhangi Tewari Simetri Siri Sithara Krishnakumar Siya Arora Smokey Sneha Khanwalkar Sofia Ashraf Sonam Kalra Sona Mohapatra Sonia Rao* Sonia Saigal Sreya Muthukumar (Shorthand) Subhadra Kamath Subhi* Subholina Sen Suchi* Suchismita Das Sukhmani Malik (Hari and Sukhmani) Sukriti Kakar and Prakriti Kakar Suman Sridhar Suneeta Rao Sunita Bhuyan Susheela Raman* Suzanne D’Mello Swapnali Raaj Sachdeva (High) Swati Bhatt Taamara Krishna Tanisha Serrao Tanushree Dwivedi (Zehen) Tanya Nambiar Tapasi Bhattacharya (Rejected Cartoons) Tracy De Sa* The Snake Charmer Tipriti Kharbangar (Soulmate) Tritha Sinha Tyesha Kohli Vamsi Krishna Vanishree Sahu Varijashree Venugopal Varshita Ramesh Vasuda Sharma Vasundhra Vee Vibha Saraf Vibhuti Ghosh Vidya Vox* Virie Vrinda* Zila Khan Zoe Siddharth Zoya*

*Indian-origin artists based out of the country part or all of the time

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In case you missed my last column , know that I’m maintaining a log of all the Indian independent music albums and EPs of 2020 . Since I published the piece, several artists and their management teams and fans have emailed me the details of their recent and upcoming releases. The list gets longer every day – as you can see, I’m all about lists – and as a result, this time around, I’m not highlighting just one or two sets but recommending four new albums: alternative rock veterans Thermal and a Quarter’s politically-charged A World Gone Mad (it’s their eighth full-length effort including triple-CD 3 Wheels 9 Lives, making them the most prolific Indian independent band of all time); electro-jazz quartet Ape Echoes’ groove-filled Charlie Dreams of Escape; Urdu singer-songwriter Sameer Rahat’s poetic Aamad; and hard rock duo Diarchy’s headbang-inducing Splitfire. Also worth checking out are electronic music EPs by producers Arjun Vagale, Corridors, Nate08, Oceantied, Stalvart John, Yung.Raj and Zilik, each of which were put out during the past fortnight and could potentially provide a suitable soundtrack for your next Zoom party.

Amit Gurbaxani is a Mumbai-based journalist who has been writing about music, specifically the country’s independent scene, for nearly two decades. He tweets  @TheGroovebox