Indo-Samoan drops the bass, picks six awards in New Zealand

Bollywood and traditional Samoan songs can be a heady concoction, but this was the music that Aaradhna Jayantilal Patel grew up on.

And look where it has brought her today.

A Rhythm and Blues (RnB) singer from New Zealand, whose father hails from Navsari and mother is of Samoan descent, Aaradhna has created a record of sorts by winning six awards for ‘Lorena Bobbit’ at NZ’s Pacific Music Awards. It’s the first time, in the nine-year history of the awards, that an artiste has bagged so many laurels for one song.

Aaradhna, 29, vaguely remembers her early childhood in India, and about visiting her father’s village. “I don’t remember much as it was in the ’80s,” she says. “But I do remember visiting Taj Mahal and riding an elephant. I don’t know, for some reason, I was at most times around monkeys, snakes and chickens! It was fun!” “I do wish to come back soon, though, to have fresh memories of Gujarat and elsewhere in India,” she says in an e-mail interview.

How did singing happen, then, we ask her and she replies, “I was 13 years old, participating in a talent competition. ‘For you, I will’ by Monica was the song I had sung and it changed my life.”

The talent, perhaps, was innate, she says. “I used to think that singing was a regular hobby because I grew up in a musical family, listening to Bollywood and Samoan songs. Ours is a culturally rich family.”

Aaradhna dedicates her musical success to her parents. “When I was a kid, I used to listen to dad sing. He is a great singer. He always asked me to up-tempo my music and to be confident in everything I do,” she reminisces. “I grew up listening to Indian songs with my dad. I used to try emulating the vibratos (variations in pitch) in their voices. And my mom used to take me to the church for gospel recitations.”

A mixed ethnic upbringing developed the way her voice is today.

“I got my singing lessons for mom and dad; maybe, that’s where I started incorporating Indian styles in some of my songs,” says Aaradhna. “My mother writes Samoan music. She always encouraged me to write my own songs.
Growing up in two musical cultures has played a major role in honing my craft.”

It wasn’t until 18 that she took up music seriously. “I started making demo tapes at home and searched for music labels (on the internet) and sent them the tapes,” says Aaradhna. “I didn’t hear from them until one day, when Brotha D (CEO of a music label) heard me singing at my aunt’s place where he was getting his hair braided. That was my first break.”

An archaeologist is what Aaradhna would have been, if not a singer. “I’m an Indiana Jones fan and travelling around the world for hidden treasures sounds like a lot of fun to me,” she says.

But have all her dreams come true? “Indeed, they have, but there are certain things I would like to achieve – to be able to speak Gujarati and Samoan fluently is one of them,” she says. “I feel it’s important to know your parents’ language… and to buy a house for them and own a pig as they too love music,” she signs off.