Vandana Vishwas is an Indo-Canadian singer, composer, and architect who is popular as a contemporary South Asian expressive music artist. ...
Vandana Vishwas is an Indo-Canadian singer, composer, and architect who is popular as a contemporary South Asian expressive music artist. Her fame lies in mixing classical North Indian music with diverse genres such as Flamenco, Rock, Ghazal, Thumri, New Age, Afro-Indian, African Beats, Ballad, and Country. She also uses sounds like Chinese Erhu in her traditional Urdu Ghazals. Vandana has been an active professional musician since 2009 and lives in Toronto, Canada.
Wiki/Biography
Vandana Vishwas was born on Friday, 17 July 1970 (age 53; as of 2023) in Lucknow, India. Her zodiac sign is Cancer. She grew up in Korba, Chhattisgarh. Vandana was blessed with a natural talent for singing. She could easily sing tough songs even when she was 4 years old. Her parents noticed this and they enrolled her for vocal singing lessons in Indian-classical music at the renowned institute Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal (ABGMM) of Miraj, India. When she was 5, she started her music lessons from Pandit Parashuram Sharma and later learned from Mrs. Vimala Soni. She earned a bachelor’s degree (Sangeet Virashad) in Indian Classical music form ABGMM in 1986.
From 1987 to 1992, Vandana pursued a B. Arch at the National Institute of Technology, Raipur, India and served as an architect under different organisations in Dubai and then in Canada. After 22 years of career as an architect, she got back to singing.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 4″
Weight (approx.): 60kg
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
Vandana Vishwas’ father is Krishna Tripathi and her mother is Madhuri Tripathi. She has a brother named Nitin Tripathi who is fond of playing tabla.
Husband & Children
Vandana Vishwas is married to Vishwas Thoke, the architect turned music co-producer, who hails from Bangalore. He gives the guitar music to all the songs of Vandana. The couple has no children.
Relationship/Affair
Vandana Vishwas was in a relationship with her collegemate, Vishwas Thoke, whom she married in 1994.
Religion/Religious Views
Vandana Vishwas follows Hinduism.
Career
Singer
Vandana Vishwas’ singing got noticed while she was a college student and worked for All India Radio as a part-time singer. In 1993, just after finishing her architecture degree, she was invited by the Indian National TV Channel, Doordarshan to perform.
She also got the opportunity to perform at the well-known stage of the Acharya Brihaspati Sammelan conducted by Sur Singar Samsad, Mumbai. Even though many Bollywood music directors approached Vandana after this performance, she chose an architecture career over singing due to her physical limitations and moved to Dubai. After a full-fledged 22-year career in architecture, Vandana declared her comeback as a singer with her debut album ‘Meera, the Lover’ in 2009. The songs are based on the story of the 16th-century Indian queen, Meera Bai’s unconditional love for Krishna.
In an interview, she expressed her return to singing and said,
I feel very, very happy when I sing. I feel very content. It is only me and music. I love music, it gives me happiness.”
Her other albums are:
- Monologues (2013) – A collaboration with different genres where Vandana blended South Asian melodies with Jazz and Rock. This got her huge acclaim. In India, it was released by Suresh Wadkar.
- Samarsiddha (2014) – It is a single that is sung in Raag Ahir Bhairav and was released as a promotional track for the debut novel ‘Samarsiddha’ by Sandeep Nayyar.
- Parallels (2016) – It is an album that has a fusion of South Indian melodies with Westernised styles like Flamenco, Country, New-Age, Rock, African, and Ballad. Vandana debuted as a lyricist with this album. The song ‘Mai Beqaid (Flamenco)’ received popularity. It is inspired by the Sufi poem of revolutionary philosopher Baba Bulleh Shah.
- Nav Varsh Mangalkamna Geet (2021) – A Sanskrit hymn released on the New Year during the Covid pandemic.
- Kabeera-The Thinker (2023) – Influenced by the 15th-century Indian philosopher and poet, Kabir’s bhajan.
Since 2009, Vandana Vishwas has been performing live at different concerts and events like the Latin-Afro-South Asian Cultural Concert and the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). Her unique style of fusing Indian and Western music like collaborating rock and pop with ghazals, nazms, thumri, and geet has captured the attention of Canadians, Americans, and Indians.
Awards & Honours
- Toronto Best World CD for ‘Meera the Lover’ (2010)
- Vox-Pop for Best Traditional World Song for ‘Badara Re’ song by U. S. Independent Music Awards (2011)
- Marty Awards for established performing arts by the Mississauga Arts Council, Canada (2010, 2011)
- Women Hero Award for Performing Arts by ICACI (Indo-Canadian Arts & Culture Initiative (2015)
Best World Music award by Toronto Independent Music Awards for album ‘Parallels’ (2016)
Silver medal by Global Music Awards in Best World Music and Female Vocalist for flamenco-based song ‘Mai Beqaid’ (2016)
- Akademia Awards in Best World Beat Album (for Parallel) & Best World Music Video (for ‘Mai Beqaid’) (2017)
Achievements
- Listed rank # 1 on Reverbnation World charts for Canada (2014)
- She has been featured by the leading Indian, US, and Canadian newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV stations without the help of any artist manager or booking agent.
- ‘Parallels’ topped the RMR (Root Music Report) World charts and stayed there for four weeks in a row.
- The album ‘Parallels’ topped the Earshot National International charts in Canada.
Favourites
- Food: Indian, and Ethiopian cuisines
- Singer: Lata Mangeshkar, Jagjit Singh
Facts/Trivia
- Vandana Vishwas’ name before marriage was Vandana Tripathi.
- Vandana Vishwas is suffering from lifelong partial immobility in her left leg and septic arthritis that was caused when she was just 2 days old. A nurse mistakenly injected an unsterilized syringe into her left hip, damaging it with a septic infection that causes her 24/7 chronic and acute pains.
- She likes coffee and her favourite coffee place is Tim Horton’s.
- When she was 8 years old she was not allowed to sing because of the serious disease of tonsillitis, which was beginning to damage her vocal cords. Vandana did not sing for 4 years and got a homoeopathic treatment until she resumed her singing training from Mrs Vimal Soni.
- As a schoolgirl, Vandana participated in many local and regional singing competitions and also won many.
- She is a foodie and loves to try authentic food from different places. Her social media is full of pictures of drinks, snacks, and food. She relishes Indian snacks and sweets.
- Vandana was given the ‘Sangeet Virashad’ degree as an exception case by the ABGMM institute because she was underage (16 years old) to receive it.
- She was mentored by Mr. D.K. Gandhe, who composed music for her during her All India Radio days.
- She is a nature lover who believes that spending time with nature is the best therapy.
- Vandana Vishwas has also been trained by the legendary South Asian composer Sohail Rana who is known for songs like ‘Aaj Jaane ki zid na karo’ and ‘Mujhe tum nazar se gira to rahe ho.
- She has been a principal and teacher at Vandana’s School of Indian Music, Mississauga, Canada since 2007.
- Vandana often consumes alcoholic drinks like beer, scotch, and cocktails. She is very fond of homemade wines.
- Vandana Vishwas is associated with the art project Our Temple Of Madness: The Summoning in Nelson, BC, Canada, where she lends her voice to different music directors.
- She enjoys reading, solving sudoku, and travelling.
- Her admirers compare her voice with the voices of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.
COMMENTS