Ananyashree Birla (; born 17 July 1994) is an Indian singer, songwriter and entrepreneur. Since her debut single in 2016, Birla has reached more than 350 million combined streams and collaborated with artists including Sean Kingston,

Afrojack Nick Leonardus van de Wall (; born 9 September 1987), better known as Afrojack, is a Dutch DJ, music producer and remixer from Spijkenisse, South Holland. In 2007, he founded the record label Wall Recordings; his debut album '' Forget the World' ...

, and

Mood Melodies Anders Frøen, professionally known as Mood Melodies, is a Norwegian record producer and songwriter. He has produced and written songs for Zedd, Jessie J, Alan Walker, Brandy and Karmin Karmin was an American pop duo consisting of Amy ...

. Birla is the first Indian artist with an English language single to go platinum in India; five of her singles have achieved platinum or double platinum status. In 2020, Birla became the first Indian to sign with Maverick Management in Los Angeles and released “Let There Be Love” and “Everybody's Lost” becoming the first Indian artiste to be featured on American national top 40 pop radio show, ''Sirius XM Hits.'' Birla is the founder of Svatantra Microfin, a company that provides microfinance to women in rural India. She is also the founder of Ikai Asai and cofounder of Mpower. Birla has received awards for her work and entrepreneurship, including the ET Panache Trendsetters of 2016 award for Young Business Person and was listed as one of GQs Most Influential Indians of 2018. In 2020, she launched the Ananya Birla Foundation to support: mental health, equality, education, financial inclusion, climate change and humanitarian relief efforts. She is the daughter of

Kumar Mangalam Birla Kumar Mangalam Birla (born 14 June 1967) is an Indian billionaire industrialist, philanthropist, Chartered Accountant and the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, one of the largest global conglomerates in India. He is also the chancellor of t ...

, an Indian industrialist and the chairman of the

Aditya Birla Group Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Mumbai. It operates in 100 countries with more than 1,40,000 employees directly and indirectly. The group was founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857. The group ha ...

and sister to Indian cricketer

Aryaman Birla Aryaman Birla (born 9 July 1997) is an Indian cricketer. Early life and background He is son of Kumar Mangalam Birla, a billionaire-industrialist and the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group and a member of the Birla family. In 2018, he was pur ...

(see

Birla family The Birla family is a family connected with the industrial and social history of India. Foundations The Birla family origins lie with the Maheshwari caste of Bania Vaishya traders but they were outcast from their traditional community in 1922 ...

)

Early life

Ananyashree Birla developed an interest in music at an early age, learning to play the

santoor The Indian santoor instrument is a trapezoid-shaped hammered dulcimer, and a variation of the Iranian santur. The instrument is generally made of walnut and has 25 bridges. Each bridge has 4 strings, making for a total of 100 strings. It is ...

at the age of eleven. She studied economics and management at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

for her bachelor's degree, but dropped out without completing her degree.

Career

Music career

While at university, Birla started singing and playing the guitar at pubs and clubs. She also began writing her own music. Her debut single, "Livin’ the Life", was co-written, and produced, by JimBeanz (who previously collaborated with

Nelly Furtado Nelly Kim Furtado (; ; born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. Furtado has sold over 40 million records worldwide making her one of the most successful Canadian artists. She first gained fame with her trip hop-inspired deb ...

Cheryl Tweedy Cheryl Ann Tweedy (born 30 June 1983) is an English singer and television personality. Born and raised in Newcastle upon Tyne, she rose to fame in late 2002 upon winning a place in Girls Aloud, a girl group created through ITV's '' Popstar ...

and

Demi Lovato Demetria Devonne Lovato ( ; born August 20, 1992), known as Demi Lovato, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. After appearing on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004), Lovato rose to prominence for pl ...

) and was recorded and produced at a studio in Philadelphia. A remix by Dutch DJ

of "Livin’ the Life" makes Birla the first Indian artiste to get a worldwide release through PM:AM Recordings and hit over 14 million views on YouTube as of June 2017. Her songs have been topping the music charts in 2019. She released her next single "Meant to be" in July 2017 which was subsequently certified Platinum as per the Indian Music Industry (IMI) recognised criteria for certifications. This makes Birla the first Indian artiste with an English single to go platinum. In January 2017, she supported

Coldplay Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University Col ...

at the Global Citizen Festival. She released her single "Hold On" on 1 March 2018. On 7 June 2018, she released her fourth single "Circles". On 17 January 2019, she released her 5th single and 1st song of 2019 "Better", which was viewed 4 million times on YouTube within 2 days of its release. She released her debut EP ''Fingerprint'' in May 2019, via UMG and Island Records UK. It included "Blackout" featuring

Vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

and Wurld, which was one of the first collaborations between major artists from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. In September 2019, she release
‘Day Goes By’ with Sean Kingston
who she met when they toured in India together. The song marked one of the first major pop collaborations between a US and Indian artist. The video has been viewed over 10 million times on YouTube. In 2020 she signed with Maverick Management in Los Angeles. Later that year, she released “Let There Be Love” and “Everybody's Lost” becoming the first Indian artiste to be featured on an American national top 40 pop radio show, ''Sirius XM Hits.'' She has performed at some of the biggest music events in Asia including

Global Citizen Global citizenship is the idea that one's identity transcends geography or political borders and that responsibilities or rights are derived from membership in a broader class: "humanity". This does not mean that such a person denounces or waives ...

, Oktoberfest, and

Sunburn Sunburn is a form of radiation burn that affects living tissue, such as skin, that results from an overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, usually from the Sun. Common symptoms in humans and animals include: red or reddish skin that is ho ...

, Asia's biggest electronic music festival, and has toured with

Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor. He released his debut album, ''Show and Prove'', in 2006 and signed to Warner Bros. Records in 200 ...

. Birla's "Hindustani Way" is the official CHEER SONG for the Indian Olympic at the 2021 Olympics, composed by

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

Business career

Birla founded Svatantra Microfin Private Limited at the age of 17. The organisation makes small loans to women entrepreneurs based in rural India. Under her leadership, Svatantra won the Gold Award for Best Start-Up (Skoch Financial Inclusion and Deepening Awards, 2014), Spirituality @ Work: Sach Bharat Samman (Sach Bharat Confluence 2015) and has maintained a quality loan portfolio, offering one of the lowest interest rates in the country. In 2016, Birla became the founder and CEO of Ikai Asai, an inventory-based global luxury e-Commerce platform. The same year, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' named her one of Asia's Women to Watch.

Acting Career

In 2022, Ananya made her OTT debut after being featured in the song "Inaam" from Rudra, a web series starring actor

Ajay Devgn Vishal Veeru Devgan (born 2 April 1969), known professionally as Ajay Devgn, is an Indian actor, film director and producer who works in Hindi cinema. Devgn has appeared in over a hundred films and has won numerous accolades, including four ...

. She made her full-fledged acting debut in 2023, with in a spy thriller titled Shlok: The Desi Sherlock. The film is directed by

Kunal Kohli Kunal Kohli is an Indian film director, producer, actor and writer in Bollywood. He is best known as the director of '' Hum Tum'' (2004) and '' Fanaa'' (2006). He also owns the production house Kunal Kohli Productions, whose first was his ''T ...

and features Indian actor

Bobby Deol Vijay Singh Deol (born 27 January 1967) popularly known as Bobby Deol, is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema and web series. A member of the List of Hindi film families#Deol family, Deol family, he is the younger son of veteran actor Dhar ...

Campaign work

While in England, Birla became aware of a student helpline that helped young people suffering from anxiety and depression. After university, she returned to India and, along with her mother, set up a mental health initiative called MPower aiming to stamp out the stigma towards people with mental illness across India. MPower is also responsible for opening a treatment centre for children suffering from mental health conditions. In 2020, in response the COVID-19 pandemic, Mpower tied up with the Government of Maharashtra and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to launch a 24x7 free helpline. 45 thousand people had called within 2 months of the launch. She is an ambassador for the

National Alliance on Mental Illness The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is a United States-based nonprofit organization originally founded as a grassroots group by family members of people diagnosed with mental illness. NAMI identifies its mission as "providing advoc ...

, the United States’ largest grassroots mental health organisation dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. She launched the Ananya Birla Foundation in 2020 with a COVID-19 relief project that involved providing menstruation kits, PPE kits and protective equipment to women and hospitals across Maharashtra. The Foundation also worked in providing essentials to migrant workers during the pandemic.

Personal life

Ananya Birla is the eldest child of the sixth richest Indian –

(Chairman of

) and Neerja Birla and the sixth generation scion of the

. Birla family's place of origin is Pilani, Rajasthan.

Discography

Extended plays

Singles

References

External links

Ananya Birla's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birla, Ananya Indian women pop singers Indian women singer-songwriters Indian singer-songwriters 1994 births Living people Indian women company founders Indian microfinance people Place of birth missing (living people) Businesswomen from Maharashtra Businesspeople from Mumbai Women musicians from Maharashtra Singers from Mumbai 21st-century Indian singers 21st-century Indian women singers Birla family