Singer Tanya The Empress performing. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Singer Tanya Dutt or Tanya The Empress, as she is known on stage, considers herself an all-rounder, dabbling in various subjects like theatre, psychology, voice training and even competitive equestrian sports. She says that her musical style is also a mixture of everything. “Can you hear the sound of the blender in the background? Well, that’s how I would describe my music, it’s a mix of everything,” she says during a phone conversation.
33-year-old Tanya has graduated in Professional Music from Berklee College of Music, Massachusetts, USA. He performed his first solo concert on September 13 in California and performed at about six concerts in the US last summer. Tanya released her latest single ‘Maat’ on the streaming platform in early August.
Tanya says, ‘Maat’ is an Egyptian goddess. “But I don’t see them as gods but as role models. Ma’at is about justice, judgment and fairness, not outside, but within. If you listen to the lyrics, it tells its own story; But for me, it’s all about making choices about how to bring that balance, justice and judgment for myself instead of playing the blame game,” she adds.
In November 2023, Tanya released her debut solo album titled Ancient Futurewhich, she says, includes songs spanning more than a decade. Tanya adds, “It (the album) was almost as if my past had written it for my future, when I was going through turbulent times. It was like a guide for me.”
Performance of Tanya the Empress Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Tanya came to Delhi from Kolkata at seven o’clock. After high school, she was planning to go to Australia for graduation. However, an acquaintance convinced him that he had found the voice for Berklee. “If you look at it from India, Berkeley was an independent field. There were so many new things to live and explore as a young adult and teen. It was a very colorful experience,” she says.
Tanya’s inclusion in the lineup for Ten and Timeless was a coincidence. Roy Cherian, brother of Tommy Cherian, one of the founding members of the Hard Day’s Night Collective, found a video of Aretha Franklin performing ‘Think’ at Norman’s Rare Guitars in Los Angeles. It was Roy who asked Tommy to include Tanya in the event celebrating the group’s 10th anniversary. The group is a group of men and women from the Baby Boomer generation who have been hosting concerts based on the music of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in the city.
The singer considers the opportunity to perform at the event as “divine timing and coincidence”. “I’ve always had this vision of bridging East and West, doing that here and there because they’re two different scenes but two sides of the same coin,” she says. I don’t want to leave India, nor do I want to live in America.”
“We’re going to be doing mostly covers for the show but in the end, I have about five or six of my original songs that I’ll do tracks for… For covers, we’ll be covering songs ranging from Elton John classics to And so on,” Tanya adds.
Upon returning to the US, Tanya says, she has a few shows in Los Angeles with all original songs. She plans to release some singles soon and also an extended play or EP next year.
Watch Tanya The Empress perform at Ten and Timeless at Thiruvananthapuram Club on October 5, 2024 from 7.30 pm onwards. For more details contact +91 9995634737
published – October 04, 2024 12:47 PM IST
