The young songstress

The young songstress

Twenty-year-old Punekar Shivangi Kale is hugely talented. Aften bagging the first prize at Idole Indienne French singing competition organised by the Indian Association of Teachers of French (IATF) in September this year, she went on to win the first prize at the Asia Pacific Vision Singing competition held in Taipei in November 2018.
 
The Psychology graduate from Symbiosis College, Pune, started training in music in 2016. She has also done Grade 5 in Western classical singing from Trinity College London. “I met a teacher who introduced me to Western Classical music. Earlier, I used to train once a week but when I joined her I started practising every single day at home and that consistency helped me a lot,” she says. 

She came to know about Idole Indienne French when she was doing her C1 at Alliance Française de Pune. The competition consisted of seven participants representing countries such as Taiwan, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, and Japan. 

Kale is not one of those typical, ‘been training since I was three.’ She says, “I used to sing for fun since I was a kid but then I used to just jam,” she says. She certainly had a knack for music but started receiving formal training much later in life.” She grew up listening to Linkin Park. She was then introduced to a plethora of bands because of which she has a number of musicians that she adores and takes inspiration from. When asked about her current favourite, she says, “Lately, I’ve been loving this artist called Regina Spektor. Her unique style of singing is so inspirational.”

Ask her how did she go about preparing for the competitions, she says, “Since I was working towards giving musical exams, I was extremely focussed on the songs I was doing at that moment. So, the short-term goal was to basically make sure that I’m able to do justice to those songs and that’s how I could learn more and more songs, and then the competition happened. Since I was regularly in touch, I already had a song bank. So, all I had to do was just go through my songs and perform them there.”

She not only won hearts but also the first prize performing the song Les Filles de Cadix composed by Léo Délibes, French composer of the Romantic era. Kale says, “I chose opera and that, I reckon, was intriguing for the judges as well because not many people choose it.” On being asked if we’ll get to see her working in Bollywood anytime soon, she instantly responds, “Bollywood? Yeah! If I am given an opportunity. That said, I did sing for a Marathi film which will release soon. They needed an operatic section in the background, and I deemed fit. That happened right after the competition.”

Her experience in the competition was overwhelming and sharing about the same she says,  “I had a lot of fun there. The participants, the people —  they were all very kind.  It was a great experience.” Singing in French is no big deal for this young lady. “I have been learning French since I was in school. French and music are the two things I’m pursuing at the moment. I can’t live without them,” she says.

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