Neha Bhasin is an Indian singer-songwriter, performer, and TV hostess and was a member of the Indian pop girl group Viva!.

Biography

Neha Bhasin was born on November 18, 1982 in Delhi in a Punjabi Khatri family, India to Ashok Bhasin and Rekha Bhasin and has an elder sister and a younger brother. She first went to the The Frank Anthony Public School New Delhi, where her first dreams of becoming a superstar or performer shaped up. She later joined the Lady Shri Ram College for Women in New Delhi, where she graduated in sociology honors.

Always passionate about music and performing arts, she wanted to pursue it as profession and hence, started to compete in various contests at her very young age, before she decided to get formal training and joined Shiamak Davar's SDIPA to get trained in dance and performance and Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan to learn classical singing. In 2001, she landed up for the auditions of the Indian television talent show, Coke [V] Popstars, where she emerged as a winner and formed the pop band Viva! with the other four winners, Seema Ramchandani, Pratichee Mohapatra, Mahua Kamat, and Anushka Manchanda. Viva! soon launched their first self-titled album Viva! in 2002, reportedly 500.000 copies of which were sold in the following months. After the launch of their second album Viva! Reloaded, which was their last album as well, the group spilt and the individual members went on start their solo careers as did Neha Bhasin as well.

Neha Bhasin then stepped into playback singing, singing for Indian soundtracks, starting with the title track of the 2005 Hindi film Bullet - Ek Dhamaka for composer Somesh Mathur, which was penned by herself. Subsequently, she sung several Hindi film songs for Anand Raj Anand, Aadesh Shrivastava and Salim-Sulaiman. In 2007, she sang her first Tamil song, "Pesugiren Pesugiren" from Satham Podathey under Yuvan Shankar Raja's direction which earned her the Vijay Award for Best Female Playback Singer. In collaboration with Yuvan Shankar Raja, she sang several successful songs in Tamil cinema. She received a nomination for the 2009 Filmfare Best Female Playback Award for the song "Kuch Khaas" from the Hindi film Fashion, composed by Salim-Sulaiman. In 2011, she sang the song "Dhunki" for Yashraj Films' Mere Brother Ki Dulhan that won her many accolades. Neha won the Stardust Award in the category New Musical Sensation - Female. Her rendition earned her further nominations at the Zee Cine Awards, Screen Awards and Apsara Awards.

Neha Bhasin has also worked as a TV hostess, hosting the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Hungama programme on Zee Music, which turned out to be top-rated programme across all music channels.

In 2010, Neha Bhasin released her debut solo album called Tabaah on an independent label 'beatfactory'. The album was produced by Gaurav Dayal and some songs were written by Bhasin herself. The album was well received. Her debut song "Apple Bottoms" sponsored by the International brand Reebok won her a nomination at the Indian Music Academy Awards in the Best Non Film song category. Bhasin had collaborated on the Tamil single "Thaniye" with Emcee Jesz, a Rapper from Malaysia. A successful collaboration won her much fan following in Malaysia and Singapore.

Neha Bhasin has performed live at several events worldwide. She performed at the launch of the first Tamil channel in Singapore, Vasantham, in the presence of the President, at the Radio Raaga Awards 2010, the GIMA Awards with Salim and Sulaiman, a special aerial act at the Mirchi Music awards and many more.

Bhasin is also currently the only Indian female endorser of the world leading brand Sennheiser, having her own personalized MIC with her initialls NB embossed in pink crystals, gifted by Sennheiser.