Nilanjanaa Jayant, 17, was in the spotlight five years ago, when she performed at Carnegie Hall, New York. Several media houses covered the young talent. Shortly after her performance, she faced the question that usually follows an achievement: ‘what next?’. “Maximise this fame. Make a new single,” many new well-wishers told her. But the people she was close to, including her parents, reassured her. “Time is not of concern. You are very young. Learn and experiment,” they said. Nilanjanaa listened to the latter. She asked herself then, “Even if I was going to write a song, what would I write about?”
Now, richer in experience - of music and life - Nilanjanaa found an answer. Her debut single ‘Fire in the Cold’ -- a pop melody -- is about broken friendship. “I didn’t have a lot of friends when I was 11 or 12. I had one close friend. We separated because of jealousy and misunderstanding. That affected me a lot. But now I am surrounded by people who love me. I was in a space to reflect on that friendship. So, I could express my thoughts as a song.”
The pandemic kindled her thoughts and allowed more time for the song. Otherwise, Nilanjanaa is usually occupied with her lessons at Harmony School of Music or the occasional projects she takes up. She has written and composed songs for a biking group and an animal rights organisation among others in Bengaluru. She also uploads in her YouTube channel covers of songs she likes.
There isn’t an artist or a genre she favours. “In the beginning, it was jazz as my parents used to listen to it a lot. I would listen to Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Now, I don’t stick to one thing. I listen to all kinds of music.”
Despite receiving positive feedback for ‘Fire in the Cold’, Nilanjanaa doesn’t want her next single to be in the same genre. “I want to try different things. I have already written and composed songs that will be different from the one I released.”
Time is still not of concern to her. She is still young. She considers the next few years a phase to learn and experiment.