Shalmali: Life has changed from just running from pillar to pillar, making money

Singer Shalmali talks about 2020 giving her time to explore more things, and how much her life has changed.

Singer Shalmali didn’t find the past year to be as bad, being a musician. In fact, she’s glad she got a chance to pursue a lot of things in the lockdown period because of which 2021 will be her “deploy” year.

Singer Shalmali is known for crooning chartbusters such as Balam Pichkari and Lat Lag Gayee.

“It has been a meditative period in the past few months. Instead of running from pillar to pillar, making money, spending that money, life has really changed in that respect,” she continues, “Now I have so much clarity towards what I want to do this year. I’ll just deploy whatever I worked on in 2020. I’ll do songwriting as well, and take bigger steps into the independent music scene.”

And the 31-year-old has already swung into action on that front. “Ruka Ruka and Kalle Kalle, I’ve released two singles. My first English single, Regular as well. In 2021, I’ll have Hindi, English, and Marathi music releasing,” she says.

The impact the Covid 19 crisis has had on industries across the world was massive. Music industry too was affected, and Shalmali points out that entertainment wasn’t exactly deemed important during that time.

She elaborates, “2020 didn’t really look at entertainment as the necessity of the hour, it did get sidelined as you would expect it to. What was important was health and security of everybody. We, the music industry, did get hugely impacted. In adverse situations, you find a way to survive.”

The Balam Pichkari singer shares how the social media came to her rescue.

“I began by doing an Instagram property where I’d collaborate with musicians vocalists, who’d also be recording in their bedrooms. It was the time to hone your skills and see what you missed doing, whether you’re social or not. I’m a very lone bird, and like to do everything alone on my own. It’s not always the right way to go about this, but this time gave me time to start conversations with other musicians. I’d not say it was all bad for musicians,” says Shalmali who stepped out for work as well.