Why is Arijit Singh singing every other song? 4 female singers weigh in

Four female singers, Neeti Mohan, Jonita Gandhi, Aditi Singh Sharma and Neha Bhasin were recently invited by Anupama Chopra to speak on the gender politics that persist in the music industry.

Film critic Anupama Chopra recently invited four leading female singers of the country, Neeti Mohan, Jonita Gandhi, Aditi Singh Sharma and Neha Bhasin, to have a conversation on how the industry treats them.

Anushka Sharma and Ranbir Kapoor in a still from Break Up Song.

The group talked about how a movie album almost always has ‘95%’ solo male songs, how a ‘duet’ means giving merely two lines to the female singer, and why Arijit Singh is in every other song.

Watch the full video here:

In a video posted on Chopra’s Facebook page Film Companion on Tuesday, she asked the singers about the ‘unique gender politics’ in the music business that made Arijit Singh so big. “Arijit is singing almost every song that any hero is singing but there is no female equivalent of that,” she said.

“Thank you so much,” said Neha, rolling her eyes. Neeti said that there aren’t many female songs to begin with.

Jonita Gandhi and Neeti Mohan in a screenshot of the vid.

Aditi went on to explain how the movies nowadays have ‘95%’ songs by male singers in an album. “5 will be male songs, 2 will be female or one will be female and one will be a duet,” she said. Neeti then interjects that maybe a song will have two female lines and it will be called a duet.

Neeti Mohan, Jonita Gandhi, Aditi Singh Sharma and Neha Bhasin talking about music industry with Anupama Chopra.

Neha then gave the example of how Jonita’s Break Up Song from Ae Dil Hai Mushkil had ‘Arijit all over it’. Jonita, however, thought she had ‘a pretty good amount in that song, relatively’. Neha then spoke about Gilehriyaan from Dangal. “It was your song, it was a full song. Jiya Re is a full song, Raabta is a full song, Jag Ghoomeya is a full song. Why doesn’t a guy have two lines in my song?”

Neha also said she feels that heroines need to start standing up for themselves. “Because the day they start standing up for themselves... Anushka, Aishwarya, they say ‘Hey! This is my film, give us one-one song, so we get a song,” she said.

Jonita also pointed out how many songs are composed without keeping a woman’s vocal range in mind, which forces them to sing in really high or low keys.

Watch the full interview here:

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