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Maalavika Manoj

Other names of Maalavika Manoj: Mali, Malavika Manoj

Maalavika also known by Mali was born on 16 September 1993 in Chennai to Malayali parents from North Malabar. She is an Indian independent musician and songwriter presently based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She started her music career as a member of the underground band, Bass-in-Bridge, but soon became a solo artist after the band was disestablished in 2011. Maalavika’s passion for music stems from her childhood as she says she has been listening and appreciating music from her childhood days. Though her parents were not musicians, they would play a lot of the 1970s and 1980s style music to her, even though she was fairly young. Her father listened to a lot of electronic music in early 1990’s. When Maalavika was five years old, her parents decided to enroll her in various extracurricular classes ranging from swimming, Bharata Natyam, piano and drawing classes.

However, it was not until she was older that she realised her passion for music, hence quitting all the other activities other than piano, which she learned till she was 17 years old. Maalavika’s decision to become a musician was not hard for her and it did not come with many struggles since her parents were always supportive of her and because "they're happy if I'm doing something I want and can sustain myself and be comfortable with a career in music”, she told Times of India. Her first singing performance was at a party when she was 12 years old. At the party, she sang Ella Fitzgerald's version of "Fever”. She did her schooling at Sacred Heart Matriculation School and studied BBA at Loyola College, Chennai. In mid 2013, she left for France to complete her BBA degree, but returned to Chennai a year later after graduating. She graduated from Loyola in the same year.

In 2010, Maalavika was named the “Best Vocalist” when she performed in Maithri, the cultural event of Chettinad Vidyashram. After her fascinating vocal performance, RJ Arjun Thomas discovered her and told her about the Chennai Live band hunt, which is how the inception of Bass-in-Bridge took place. The band was eventually formed under the name "Bass-in-Bridge”, with Maalavika as their lead vocalist. Bass-in-Bridge was one of five underground bands (the other four being Wolf's Lair, Nailed, Blues Conscience, Blacklisted and Off the Record) that qualified for the event's finals which took place in November 2010. Maalavika credits her “claim to fame” to being a finalist at the band. However, due to artists in the band pursuing their solo career, the band was dissolved in 2011, which kick-started Maalavika’s fantastic solo career.

One of Maalavika’s first appearances as a solo artist materialized when she was featured in the “Sachin Anthem” composed by Dhanush which was released in February of 2012. Soon after that, Maalavika gained popularity and got an excessive amount of opportunities to perform at many events such as the World Music Day celebrations organized by Goethe Institute and Alliance Française de Chennai in association with Unwind Center. She also performed at the “Christmas Extravaganza” organized by Dr. John Joseph Foundation. After fifteen months of hard work, Maalavika's debut album Deceptive was to be released on iTunes on 15 June 2013 and on 16 June 2013 at Chipstead, Taj Coromandel. She performed under the pseudonym Mali. It was mixed by the US-based Grammy award winning composer/mixer/producer Anton Pukshansky.

The album also features other artists like Ujjayinee Roy Bio coming soon... >> Read More... , Karthick Iyer Music has no language. It has its own spark that e >> Read More... , "Ghatam" Karthik and Ed DeGenaro. According to Maalavika, the album has "a mix of styles such as jazz, electronic, blues and so on" and she compares it to "a box of assorted chocolates – something for everyone”. The song "No Place like Home”, which Maalavika considers to be "the tune dearest to her on the album”, was composed over a period of three years; she wrote it when she was 16 years old. The album has six songs, which include "This One's for you," "Deceptive”, "It's not the same”, "No Place like Home”, "Wannabe" and "Undefined." In 2015, Maalavika appeared in many performances. In April 2015, Maalavika performed with Sapta, an independent electro-acoustic world music act, at the event "Daddy’s Toxic Thursdays" in Tap Resto Bar, Mumbai.

In the same month, she performed at Mercedes Luxe Royale, and also at the launch event of Anams Man's Spring-Summer Collection held at ITC Grand Chola. Maalavika performed the song "Walk Away" during the third season of the Kappa TV show Music Mojo Music Mojo is a popular and youthful and for the y >> Read More... . As of October 2015, Maalavika plans to put together her next album, an EP titled Rush, as she claims to have written a lot of songs since “Deceptive.” Maalavika plans to continue her musical career and will be coming out with an album soon.

Another Version Of Bio:

Maalavika Manoj, alias Mali, is a Mumbai based musician and songwriter. She was born on 16 September 1993 in Chennai. She listened to music a lot since her childhood. She grew up listening to 1990s music as her father used to enjoy the same music.

She learned piano from age five till age seventeen. Maalavika gave her first singing performance at a party when she was twelve years old. There she sang Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “Fever,” changing its lyrics to suit the occasion. She completed her schooling at Sacred Heart Matriculation School and pursued BBA at Loyola College, Mumbai. Maalavika received the title of the best vocalist for her performance at Maithri (a cultural event).

Here, she was heard by RJ Arjun Thomas, who inspired her to tie up and form a band to participate in the radio station Chennai live’s band hunt which was going during the same period of time. The band was subsequently formed and named “Bass-in-Bridge” in September of 2010. It had five members- RJ Arjun(guitarist), Sajith Satya(bassist), Leon James(keyboardist), Maalavika(vocalist) and Shashank(drummer). The name Bass-in-Bridge is a pun on “Basin Bridge.” The band dissolved in 2011 after performing at a musical festival at the Goethe Institute, Chennai in the same year. With this, Leon, Maalavika and Sajith came forward as solo artists.

In her solo carrier, Maalivika had her debut in an album named “Sachin Anthum” composed by Dhanush released in February 2012. In the same year, she also carried out a performance at celebrations of World Music Day coordinated by Alliance Francaise de Chennai and the Goethe Institute along with singing a few songs at a Christmas party organized at YMCA, Vepery.

Maalavika’s debut album Deceptive was launched on 16 June 2013 at Chipstead and a day earlier on iTunes. Anton Pukshansky, the Grammy award-winning mixer and composer, mixed the album. Artists like "Ghatam" Karthik, Ujjayinee Roy, Karthick Iyer and Ed DeGenaro, who helped Maalavika with the instrumentals, also featured in this album. “No place like home,” a song featured in this album, which according to Maalavika, was the song closest to her heart, and took over three years to compose.

It took Maalavika 15 months to finish this album. Although primarily an independent musician, she has sung for feature films in Tamil- “Come on girls” for 3(2012) and “Yeda Kuda” from Kaliyugam to name a few.

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