Radhika Shankar

Musician in New Delhi, India

Radhika Shankar

Musician in New Delhi, India

Watch my videos

Radhika started singing before she could speak: there are recordings of her singing in French at age one, even though her first comprehensive sentence only arrived when she was almost three! In her early years itself, she spent more time in studios than on playgrounds - lending her baby voice to numerous jingles, voice-overs and dubbing projects along with her mother, a professional singer for over thirty five years. By the time she was fifteen, she had taught herself how to play the guitar, with a little help from her dad, and her best friends, The Beatles, and their complete chord book, which became her most precious of possessions. In college at Lady Sriram College, New Delhi, while earning a degree in Sociology, she formed an acoustic band which usurped first place in every Western music competition it entered. That was also the time she had a year-long stint anchoring a popular television show, ‘Toofan Mail’ on Sony, which also helped bring out the performer in her. She began her tryst with advertising at the age of 20, and within a few years, along with copywriting, production and video editing, she veered (naturally) toward the musical side of advertising. By her late twenties, she took a bold call to ‘go independent’, and formed her own company, Cornucopia Films. It was only in her early thirties that she began penning down songs, writing tunes and doing rough-cut recordings with her self-taught knowledge of music software. It was around the same time she pioneered the karaoke revolution in the capital, hosting packed nights in restaurants and pubs, spreading happiness to thousands who also got addicted to the rage. Being the lead vocalist of ‘The Maverix’, a strictly rock 'n' roll cover band, plunged Radhika into the exciting world of live gigs and performing to crowds applauding and asking for more. Along with her musician husband’s love and support, she has been inching closer to her childhood dream. Today, that dream has finally come true. Radhika has just launched her debut album, “Moira” in December 2013. Written and sung by her, the songs fall into the ‘Trip-Hop’ genre, sound very international and have had brilliant session musicians from all over the world collaborate on them. The songs are extremely accessible, more so because they seem to come straight from the heart. Not so co-incidentally, “Moira”, in Greek mythology, means destiny or fate.