Jonita Gandhi is a Canadian playback singer of Indian descent. She has recorded songs predominantly in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

languages with few in Punjabi,

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

languages. Some of her most acclaimed songs include '' The Breakup Song'', '' Mental Manadhil'', '' Chellama and'' ''

Arabic Kuthu "Arabic Kuthu" is a 2022 Indian song and the first single in the soundtrack of the Tamil-language film ''Beast'', directed by Nelson. Starring Vijay and Pooja Hegde, the film is produced by Kalanithi Maran under the studio Sun Pictures. The ...

''. She is also well known for her YouTube presence. Her singing debut started through '' Chennai Express'' title track (in 2013).

Personal life

Gandhi was born in a Punjabi family from

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

. Her family emigrated to

Brampton Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#Lower-tier municipalities, lower-tier municipalit ...

, Canada when she was nine months old, where she was raised. Her family later settled in

Mississauga Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...

. Gandhi studied in

Turner Fenton Secondary School Turner Fenton Secondary School is a high school in the Peel Region, located in Brampton, Ontario. The principal is Kevin Williams. It is operated by the Peel District School Board, and is credited as one of the highest funded schools in Ontario, ...

and attended the

Ivey Business School Ivey Business School is a constituent unit of the University of Western Ontario, located in London, Ontario, Canada. Ivey offers full-time undergraduate (HBA), MBA, MSc, MFE and PhD programs and also maintains two teaching facilities in Toronto ...

of the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...

where she completed her degrees in health science and business in 2012. She has had formal training in Western and Hindustani classical singing.

Career

Jonita Gandhi performs at Aurora, IIIT Gwalior (2018)

Gandhi grew up around music as both her father and brother were part time musicians. They would often perform cover songs together at live community events. At age 16, she auditioned for Canadian Idol but didn't get past the audition rounds. She began making YouTube covers from her bedroom, sometimes featuring other local musicians including Akash Gandhi. The videos quickly went viral and led to a myriad of opportunities to perform. Her hits on YouTube began with covers of well-known Hindi-film songs, such as, ''

Pani Da Rang "Pani Da Rang" ( en, "The Colour of Water") is a song from the 2012 Indian film '' Vicky Donor'', written and composed by Ayushmann Khurrana and Rochak Kohli. The song was performed in the film by Khurrana in his role as the titular Vicky. A ...

'', ''Tujhko Jo Paaya'', ''Tum Hi Ho'', ''Suhaani Raat'', ''Yeh Honsla'' and many others. Her beginning concerts typically consisted of these covers. Her jump to playback singing began with an opportunity to perform alongside

Sonu Nigam Sonu Nigam (born 30 July 1973) is an Indian singer, music director and actor. He has been described in the media as one of the most popular and successful playback singers of Hindi Cinema and Kannada Cinema. He has been honoured by the Govern ...

. This tour crossed various countries including

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, UK, US and the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

. Afterwards, her sights were set on starting a career in the Bollywood music industry. Gandhi started playback singing with Chennai Express. The music for this film was composed by

Vishal–Shekhar Vishal–Shekhar are an Indian music composer, production, singing and songwriting duo consisting of Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani from Mumbai. Known predominantly for their work as music composers in Hindi cinema, Vishal–Shekhar have a ...

. She further worked in other

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

movies like

Highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

, singing both ''Kahaan Hoon Main'' and ''Implosive Silence''. Gandhi worked as a playback singer with music directors including

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 ...

and

Pritam Pritam Chakraborty (born 14 June 1971), also known mononymously as Pritam, is an Indian composer, instrumentalist, guitarist, and singer. After working as an ad jingles composer, he debuted as a co-composer in the 2001 Hindi film Tere Liye. ...

. Rahman featured Gandhi in the concert film One Heart (film). Gandhi performed at the 2016 Jubilee Games in Dubai with

Salim–Sulaiman Salim–Sulaiman is an Indian score composer duo consisting of siblings Salim Merchant and Sulaiman Merchant. The duo compose music predominantly for Hindi films. Life and early career Salim–Sulaiman's ancestral town is Mundra, Kutch, Gujar ...

and with

Amit Trivedi Amit Trivedi (born 8 April 1979) is an Indian music director, singer and a lyricist who works primarily in Hindi films. After working as a theatre and jingle composer and composing for non-film albums, he debuted as a film composer in the 200 ...

MTV Unplugged ''MTV Unplugged'' is an American television series on MTV showcasing musical artists usually playing acoustic instruments. The show aired regularly from 1989 to 1999 and less frequently from 2000 to 2009, when it was usually billed as ''MTV Un ...

. In 2020, Jonita Gandhi was involved in mentoring and judging the Indian kids singing reality show

Taare Zameen Par ''Taare Zameen Par'', also known as ''Like Stars on Earth'' in English, is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language drama film produced and directed by Aamir Khan. The film stars Khan himself, along with Darsheel Safary, Tanay Chheda, Sachet Engineer, Vi ...

StarPlus StarPlus is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star (formerly ''Star India''), a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. The network's programming consists of Soap opera, family dramas, ...

As of 2021, Gandhi is set to make her film debut with director

Vignesh Shivan Vignesh Shivan, credited sometimes as Vignesh Shivn (born 18 September 1985) is an Indian film director, film producer, actor, singer and lyricist who works in Tamil cinema. Personal life Shivan and actress Nayanthara had been in a relationshi ...

film ''Walking/Talking Strawberry Icecream'', starring Krishnakumar Balasubramanian.

Discography

List of songs recorded by Gandhi. The list includes tracks recorded for film and non-film albums.

Filmography

References

External links

Official Website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gandhi, Jonita Living people 1989 births Canadian playback singers Canadian women singers Singers from Delhi Women musicians from Delhi Indian emigrants to Canada Musicians from Brampton Punjabi people Canadian musicians of Indian descent Canadian people of Punjabi descent University of Western Ontario alumni Punjabi singers Bollywood playback singers Tamil playback singers Telugu playback singers Kannada playback singers Bengali playback singers Gujarati playback singers Malayalam playback singers Expatriate musicians in India Canadian expatriates in India Canadian YouTubers 21st-century Canadian singers 21st-century Canadian women singers Female YouTubers