Girl Power! All Female Group of ‘Vocal Rush’ launch Cover of ‘Despacito’

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Alfie Dsouza, Team Mangalorean.
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Girl Power! All Female Group of ‘Vocal Rush’ launch Cover of ‘Despacito’

Girl Power! All Female Vocal Group launch Cover of ‘Despacito’- a global Spanglish Hit song by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, also featuring teenage girls Heartthrob pop singer Justin Bieber.

Mangaluru: Talk about Girl Power- An all-Girl singing group of six hailing from Mangaluru who stand for women empowerment have made big news and have taken a step closer to making their dreams come true, by once again featuring themselves on YouTube by launching the cover of ‘Despacito’, a global Spanglish hit by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee that features Justin Bieber. These teenage singers have received rave responses to their ‘Despacito’, where nearly nine lakh people have viewed the song ever since it was uploaded on June 16. The song produced and mastered by Noel Prashanth was recorded at Sandesha Digital Studio in Mangaluru.

Here we’re not talking 90’s girl power. Meet the new generation of stage-dominating goddesses that have given us a new reason to rock out. Say hello to “Vocal Rush” band members, who are a group of six singers, each with a unique voice and texture- Apeksha Palanna, Audette Moreira, Natasha Coelho and Nichelle Monteiro are doing their B Com in St. Aloysius College, Mangaluru; Merula Pinto pursuing her psychology at Roshni Nilaya College, Mangaluru; and Riya Benny is doing her law in St. Joseph’s College of Law, Bengaluru, are now Mangaluru’s hottest new export. And they just happen to be girls. Despite the endless list of comparisons ranging between ‘80’s indie, ‘60’s girl singing groups and new wave movements, this talented six-piece have taken their varied influences in their stride, making Mangalureans feel proud of them and their music.

These classes have put music together and have honed their craft to near-perfection- they give a new meaning to genre-blending. With a distinctly take on pop, dance, rock-n-roll etc, the eccentric girl singers are nothing short of fascinating. The first time I saw them perform live at the Mangalore Club “Christmas Gala” on 11 December 2016, they simply enthralled the crowd with their foot-tapping music performance. They were simply awesome! (Click on Article Link: https://www.mangalorean.com/girl-vocal-group-vocal-rush-rocks-mluru-club-christmas-gala/). Frankly speaking, these six crooners are a shining light in the male-dominated world of rock-n-roll and pop. This powerful sextet can weave their way around a pop, rock-n-roll etc hook like some of the best.

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Producer Noel Prashanth, who runs two music schools in the city speaking to Team Mangalorean said, ” When I came back from Mumbai, I got a call from Nichelle and she wanted to make a cover of “Despacito”. I myself liked it very much and gave it a go. They really worked hard to learn the Spanish pronunciation’s and practiced every day for hours together, not to forget the harmonies which were tough but they still pulled it off amazingly!  It was great fun producing music for them and am really looking forward to the next one. Personally, I feel these girls can become the next big thing on YouTube. It’s really amazing they got more than nine lakh views. With the way they are going, I see it happening every day!! To all the doubters that say you can’t make it being in Mangaluru, these girls totally proved them wrong!!

About Prashanth, he is a BCA (Bachelor’s in Computer Application) graduate from St.Aloysius College, Mangaluru. When it comes to music, he’s an 8th-grade pianist from Trinity College of London, and has performed with a band called ROL which appeared on ‘India’s Got Talent Season 7’, a year back. Presently Prashanth produces and writes his own music, at the same time runs a music institution called “Gabriel School of music” here in Mangaluru. All this can be followed on my page, www.facebook.com/GabrielStudiosInc

Speaking of their success of “Despacito’ cover, Nichelle said, “We all the girls worked hard for the song. “Noel Prashanth was very supportive and helped us improve our harmonies. Despite his busy schedule, he had made time for us and worked really hard with us. He is an amazing producer and a better friend. We had loads of fun making this cover. We have also done two covers last year”.

Following are the excerpts from the exclusive interview with ‘Vocal Rush’:

Q: Can you tell us about the formation of the group? What made you and how did you all get together?

We are all ex-students of St. Agnes College. We were strangers to each other who bonded through music. We loved to sing together as a group and so we decided to continue singing as a group. In time, we grew closer and developed a strong bond after the formation of the group.

Q: What do you feel about the music industry today?

My thoughts on Music Industry: The Music Industry is growing and there’s a lot of scopes for young artists to rise and shine. But we believe along with hard work and dedication, it’s the support and love that you get from people that motivate you to achieve greater heights.

Q: Do you think singer/songwriters are the best of their own work or do you believe some cover versions can be better than the original?

Without the originals, there cannot be any covers. The covers can sometimes be better than the original because there’s a lot of scope for improvisation once you have a rough idea on how to go about with the song. But writing and composing originals is really hard and is the talent which not many possess.

Q: What steps do you plan on taking to reach your goal in your career in Music Industry?
We started this group because we are all really passionate about music, and all we want to do is sing. So the plan as of now is to keep doing just that. We are going to work hard and keep making music that inspires people and brings out the best in us!

Q: From your experience so far, what have you found to be most challenging? And how are you dealing with it?

As a group of six girls with each having different textures and tonality, it’s hard to blend our vocals. Since we’re six of us, we sometimes find it hard to harmonize and synchronize when we sing. But we meet up every day after classes and practice and work on our weaknesses and we believe we’ll get better with time.

Q: What kind of music influences your song selection? Are there any artists that inspire you?

Regarding our musical influences for covers and artists who inspire us : Since we’re a cover group, our music influences come from people’s choices and preferences since they are the final judges. So we cover songs that are loved by the people and the songs that we love singing too. There have been artists who have inspired us personally but as a group, our biggest influences come from the classics such as ABBA, Spice Girls and other boy bands such as Backstreet Boys and Westlife. But our recent influence comes from the powerhouse group LITTLE MIX. We love watching them perform and hope that one day we can perform like them and hopefully meet them!

Q: What made you all pick the song “Despacito’ for your cover launch?

As we mentioned earlier, people’s choices and preferences play an important role in choosing the song we wanna cover. Despacito is the one song that had been on every body’s tongue including ours since April. We loved that song and even though we couldn’t actually sing it, we loved listening to it on repeat! Since nobody had attempted to cover that song in Mangaluru we decided to give it a try and worked really hard on it with our producer/friend Noel Prashanth.

Q: Are you planning on releasing any music CD of your own shortly? What’s next stored for you girls? Any planning on any live gigs?

No. We haven’t really thought about releasing CDs anytime soon. We just want to stick to making covers and hopefully collaborate with other budding artists. We know we’ve got a long way to go, so we’re taking one step at a time. No plans of any gigs in the nearest future, but if any offer comes up, we’ll think it over.

Q: What’s your advice for budding musicians who want to reach greater heights?

Dream big, work hard to achieve them. Do not get demotivated by the obstacles in your way. Be confident, have faith and just believe in yourself. Nobody can stop you from reaching your dreams.

Team Mangalorean wishes the six lasses of ‘Vocal Rush’ singing group all success in their music career. You go Girls!

You can follow Vocal Rush at the following links:

And you can follow Noel Prashanth at
Also Read The Following Exclusive Interviews By Alfie D’Souza:

 


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Max and Jessie Rasquinha
7 years ago

Great news about the Six prominent lady singers from Mangalore. We love to listen to other’s voices, especially the female voices. We would like to listen to you some times during our next visit to Mangalore. Are you free for a two hour presentation on Saturday evening, November 4, 2017? What’s your premium, please???

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