Jonita Gandhi: To see myself on the iconic billboard seemed a far-fetched dream

Jonita Gandhi

Jonita Gandhi finds herself on one of the billboards of Yonge-Dundas Square in her hometown Toronto. She is the only Indo-Canadian singer, among several Asian artistes, to feature in Spotify's campaign to recognise their contribution. "To see myself on the iconic billboard seemed a far-fetched dream. It is an honour to celebrate my South Asian roots in my home country," she says.

Jonita Gandhi in an earlier interview with IANS had said that music videos are a great way for singers to reach out to their audience. In the case of film songs, she pointed out, fans only know the actors they see on screen and often have no idea who sang the song. "We're living in a visual era. As a singer, especially in Bollywood, we don't often get to be the face of our voice, so listeners don't get to know who we are. Music videos for independent music gives us the opportunity to be the face of our own voice," she said.

The singer further added said the pandemic gave singers a chance to make independent music, and hence the scope to interact with fans directly. "With the rise of the pandemic, artistes have been exploring (the idea of) making music from home and there's been a lot more original songs released independently, a lot of them have been in a DIY kind of acoustic or with minimalistic production vibes. I think the pandemic gave us artistes a chance to connect with the music within us, and space to create what we enjoy rather than solely commercial tracks, and it seems the audience has developed a taste for it as well," she said.