Singer Lisa Mishra talks to Chahak Mittal about how her first original Tareefan Reprise transformed her life within the blink of an eye
When something looks too good to be true, it usually is. But sometimes things do turn out the way one wishes, as it happened with singer Lisa Mishra of Tareefan Reprise-fame.
It was while driving back home from work in Chicago that she was listening to the Tareefan song from the film Veere Di Wedding on loop. She then recorded a short video, mashing up the song with DJ Snake feat Justin Bieber’s Let Me Love You and posted it on Instagram. Little did she know that Rhea Kapoor and actress Sonam Kapoor would chance upon it, like her rendition of it so much that she would be asked to fly down to Mumbai to shoot for its reprise version.
“When I had recorded and put it out on Instagram, I never expected it to be liked by many. It actually didn’t come out very well, I thought. I never felt that it was going to be a hit. But the next thing to happen was that I was flying to Mumbai. It is actually a very bizarre thing to imagine. But with me, this ‘too good to be true’ thing did happen and it was surreal,” says Lisa as she recalls the time when she first transitioned from her social media videos to singing for mainstream Bollywood.
The self-taught singer from Berhampur (or Brahmapur), Odisha was six when she moved to Chicago and has been living there ever since. However, the love for Indian music just grew. Her newest single, Sajna Ve has just released and she tells us how she landed this song and why it took a long time for her next single to be released after Tareefan. She says, “Composer, Vishal Mishra and Rhea had originally written the song for Veere Di Wedding, post which the song was supposed to be a part of the film Notebook (which starred Pranutan Bahl). And we had been planning it since quite a while about what new element could we add to the song. However, it did turn out to be really good, luckily.”
She laughs to add that there was surely an inherent connection between her and the Sonam Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan-starrer film.
Lisa’s social media posts are evidence that the singer has a huge heart for fusion music. She mashes up The Doorbeen’s Lambhergini and Maroon 5’s Sugar with such an ease that the two songs look like naturally fitting into each others’ beats. She says, “After Tareefan, I also sang the rap called Back to School. I really like to experiment with different beats and genres of music. And I would like to follow that. And sometimes when you really like two songs from two different genres, why can’t you mash them up?”
For the one, who has been practising and following Indian music all her life, how has she seen the music industry in India evolve over the time? “There has been a huge transition since the time I began following Indian music. In the 90s, there were more of melodies and soft tunes. Today, people are much more inclined to good, dance beats. With the changing, fast-paced lifestyles of people, their music choices, especially of the youngsters, have seen a huge change.”
Talking about her various performances for music festivals and concerts across different cities, which are creating waves, she says that those are extremely important, especially for the emerging artists who are able to make their voices heard even more through them. “It is important to get a live audience when it comes to singing because today, with so many advancements and voice modifications through technology, sometimes the authenticity and the originality of an artist is put into question. But performing live, outside of recording studios, is important for people to realise their true voice. No one knows how the song is created inside the recording studio. But the more audience gets to catch you live, the more you get recognition and the enthusiasm to keep performing and giving your best,” says she.