As a little girl you would always find me singing, dancing and acting in my grandma’s bedroom and entertaining the whole family. My gravitation towards music was almost automatic & undeniable. From listening to my parents’ vinyls to to now streaming songs on Spotify music has always been a constant in my life. As a newly turned teen, I would sing my heart out to pop music for hours every day and that child like passion has continued ever since.
My music training began early; initially I trained in Bengali classical music, vocals and playing the harmonium (reed organ). Later in the UK I did Vocal lessons at Southampton Arts Academy, which included recording in a professional studio, writing songs and basics of playing keyboard. I also did Performing Arts and Theatre at City College Southampton where I explored different genres of theatre as well as singing .
My musical experiences include performing in pantomimes, variety shows, festivals, open days, cultural programmes and now the student bar












Very early on I was exposed to different types of music, not necessarily different genres of music, but these songs were unique in their own respective ways. My parents from an early age would play popular and classical English and Bengali songs in the house. And growing up in Bangladesh which is a neighbouring country to India through television I got introduced to popular Hindi music as well as classical Hindi music. 
My introduction to music was the hearty tunes from Elvis, Tom Jones, Engelbert, Shirley Bassey etc; and my most significant influence around music came from my friends & their favourites. After much convincing & saving up, I got my first iPod and with my extremely slow broadband connection, I’d spend hours illegally downloading music. I valued & cherished these songs with all of me, whilst jamming to them and singing carelessly I realised I had some potential worth caring about and that solidified my want to be a singer. I remember being a massive Lady gaga fan, it wasn’t just her music that touched me, it was her sense of freedom, style, as well as what she stood for. My other favourites to sing along to were Avril Lavingne, Rihanna, Beyonce, Drake, Maroon 5 and basically anything that would reach my part of the world. The album’s that had the biggest impact on me being fixated on wanting to be a pop star was The Fame by Lady Gaga, Loud by Rihanna and Teenage Dream by Katy Perry.
I’m not entirely sure where I stand with how exactly I want to make music but currently I have been gravitating towards music from artists like Grimes, FKA Twigs, Reyko, CUT_, Bad Gyal, Lexie Liu, Björk etc. Their music can be cast as alternative pop, r&b, hip hop, soul and electronic dance music. Before I was only into pop but now I find myself liking music that can be classified as a popular music but is different to a traditional pop song.

My whole life led up to the Artist I am and want to become. As a child I had a very solemn side to me and it was very difficult for me to find joy in lots of things other Bengali kids would find joy in. The only person in the world I felt emotionally connected to was my father who passed away when I was 10 years old. I never felt loved accepted by my relatives or even my own mother; also getting picked on at school did not leave much scope in my childhood to find happiness and confidence. For the first 12 years of my life I did not really have friends but in my teenage years I made a lot of great friends and beautiful and interesting experiences. Some of it were pleasant some of it not so much, but all of it was necessary. My father was a big achiever who’d seen all corners of the world & lit up every room he’d go in, a loving, extravagant yet calm personality with natural confidence & belief in himself. Some of which trickled down to me & made it’s way on to my perspective of life & how I dream. So At 14, with not much considered & only eyes twinkling with dreams, I decided I wanted to be a pop star. 
Being a single parent, my mother took my good grades in Maths and Physics into consideration & thought I’d be fit to be an engineer. The hardest time of my life was from the age of 19 to 25. These years were filled with depression, isolation, frustration and even dealing with suicidal thoughts on and off. At the age of 19 against my will, leaving my whole life behind that I had in Bangladesh my mother made us move to England. I was promised by my mother that I was supposed to go to university but in reality that was not the case. Initially I was forced to go to college to study civil engineering. I switched my course against my mother’s will to performing arts in theatre. I learned a lot from that course but regardless felt like an outsider. After that I was bedridden with depression for 17 months. And then had to work a lot of jobs I didn’t want to work,  It felt like I was going further and further from my dreams. But these were the most impactful years of my life. Somehow after taking all the responsibilities as the older daughter and a bread winner, doing everything I had to do, I tried to make some time to learn make up, to do drag, to sometimes go and visit my music teacher in Southampton just to keep my dreams alive despite my mother heavily discouraging it. My entire life has been a fight to earn the right to pursue music as a career and to pursue my other artistic talents. A South Asian girl raised by a single mother, having financial difficulties, suffering mental illnesses and on top of that facing a lot of body shaming and suffering body dysmorphia. Life hasn’t always been the easiest but I still managed to immensely grow my confidence and cultivate a very strong foundation of who I am as a person inside. My friends, colleagues and a lot of people who cross my path always say I bring a lot of happiness and joy to them and they rarely ever catch me not smiling. I feel like in my music this is the message I want to bring; that our dreams are not a burden even though sometimes it may feel like it. When I was entirely losing hope around the age of 24, this quote from Steve Harvey came to my rescue (Originally said by Albert Einstein) ‘Protect what God puts in your imagination. Imagination is everything. It is the preview to Life’s coming attractions’. However 25 was the best year of my life, that is the year I chose to quit my retail job with Marks & Spencer that I had for three years. I finally gave myself the permission to have a great time with my friends and that year I finally came to university to pursue a subject I wanted to since I was a child. I am not even near where I want to be but so far the life I have lived is a testament that who you are meant to become on this planet will not escape you if you don’t lose sight of it. 'But entrainment is also invoked in present ethnomusicological attempts to link physiological and social processes in the analysis of musical performance' (Clayton et al., 2004).
I want people to try their best to pursue whatever it is they want regardless of their circumstances; that is the only way we can maximise the potential of every living being on this planet.

Recently our lecture Fola brought in a Level 6 student Julia Slawinska to share their perspective about studying music in UEL.

According to Julia, what she found most useful was working with her peers and networking.

Her honest opinion was she did not get much help from the lectures are the facilities in the University itself. She complained about the lack of performance opportunities.

I appreciated her honest opinion but it did not quite alter my personal decisions about continuing my career in this university.

I mainly came to this University to buy myself time to delve into my music and other creative aspects and prepare myself to be the artist I want to become. I have already learned a lot from my peers and from my lecturers as well.

I am not super keen on the idea of the University finding new performance opportunities because I feel like I can do that by myself and regardless I want to approach my career via the online space. For me right now UEL seems the right place to be. 

Over the years I have found and cultivated a deep passion for fashion, make up, drag and different forms of designing. Alongside of being a singer I feel like I have the skills to package and market myself very well. I definitely want to pursue visual direction and a lot of other things that tie into aesthetics. I have great voice acting skills at some point I would like to experiment with that as well. For the near future I want to be a trained singer, a skilled songwriter, and a moderately skilled producer. As well as incorporate all my aesthetic skills to present myself as a well rounded artist. As much as I thrive around kind and loving people, I do not always feel comfortable injecting myself into foreign settings. Fortunately, now we can do a lot behind the screens. To showcase your talent and avail opportunities it’s no more a necessity to go to various auditions, physically impress strangers or to network all of it which still helps. A lot can be done in the online space and that is the approach I want to take. Predominantly I would like to use Instagram and TikTok to market myself as well as YouTube and Spotify. I don not feel like I am very far away from getting started but there are definitely certain skills I need to acquire. I am a confident person and a performer but I still lack the desire to constantly showcase myself due to my ongoing struggle with body dysmorphia. I would like to get to a size I am fully comfortable in and not leave any room for excuses, so that I can consistently produce quality work that I truly want to. In terms of technical skills like I mentioned  before I need to train my voice and learn music production and maybe learn an instrument as well. I do not see myself happily working in any other industry other than the art/music industry. To live a fulfilled life I believe I need to be constantly expressing myself through my vocals and ascetics but mainly convey messages that are authentic to my being. I feel like I can help other people to heal and they can help me to do the same. I constantly want learn from other artists, other people, the world and life in general.

References :

Clayton M, Sager R and Will U (2004) In time with the music: the concept of entrainment and its significance for ethnomusicology. Paper read at European Meetings in Ethnomusicology 11/ESEM Counterpoint.

Albert Einstein
Credited to Einstein in Reaching Your Possibilities through Commitment (1981) by Gerald W. Marshall.