Sahana Bajpaie is an Bengali-Indian singer-songwriter from Santiniketan and one of the most prominent contemporary Rabindra Sangeet vocalists in West Bengal, India and Bangladesh. By the age of 13, she started singing. In 2007, she released her debut album Notun Kore Pabo Bole, which was a collection of Rabindra Sangeet. In 2014, she released her second solo albumShikawr, with several musicians from West Bengal. Sahana's second Rabindra Sangeet album Ja Bolo Tai Bolo was released in 2015 and the latest solo album, Mon Bandhibi Kemone in 2016. In 2012, she made her first playback in the Indian Bengalifantasy filmTasher Desh. Alongside Shayan Chowdhury Arnob, she has written, composed and produced several popular Bengali songs.
Early life and education
Bajpaie was born at Santiniketan, West Bengal, India. She spent her childhood at Santiniketan and lived there till 2002. Both of her parents were professors of political science at the University of North Bengal. She took her first lessons in music from her father, Bimol Bajpaie and learned to sing at the age of six. Later she started taking learning from eminent musicians of Santiniketan like Bijoy Sinha, Chitra Roy, Shyamali Banerjee, Chandan Manda and Mita Haque and received training in Indian classical music and Rabindra Sangeet. In 2005, Bajpaie joined BRAC University in Dhaka as a lecturer in English. In May 2008, she left for London, to pursue her postgraduate studies at the SOAS, University of London.
Music career
In 2007, Bajpaie released her debut album Notun Kore Pabo Bole, which was a collection of Rabindra Sangeet. It was released on March 6, 2007 from Bengal Music Company, Dhaka. The album created quite a stir in the music scenario of Bangladesh and West Bengal, owing to its avant-garde representation and arrangement of Tagore-songs. She released her second Rabindra Sangeet album Ja Bolo Tai Boloin September, 2015 from India and Bangladesh, which contained a collection of devotional and folk songs of Tagore. Her third solo album Mon Bandhibi Kemone was released in 2016, which was the first of its kind, collection of hand-picked folk-songs of Bengal, which Bajpaie and her associates had painstakingly collected and arranged them in a contemporary format. Music arrangement of this album was done by Samantak Sinha and Satyaki Banerjee. In 2016, she made a playback for the Bengali filmUnder Construction.
Playback
In 2013, Bajpaie made her debut playback in Bengali comedy filmHawa Bodol which was directed by Parambrata Chattopadhyay. In 2016, she sang for Family Album by Mainak Bhaumik, which was set to tune by Anupam Roy. In 2018, she sang for two films Ek Je Chilo Raja, a film by Srijit Mukherjee & Rainbow Jelly, by Soukarya Ghoshal. More recently, in the Shiboprasad & Nandita directed, Kontho, she sang the song, Shawbai Chup.
Personal life
In 2000, Bajpaie married her childhood friend Shayan Chowdhury Arnob, a Bengali musician, singer-songwriter and composer. They got divorced in 2008. Later, Bajpaie married Richard Herrett and has a daughter with him. She now resides in London, where she serves as a senior teaching fellow in Bengali in the Department of the Languages and Cultures of South Asia at SOAS South Asia Institute. She is however currently, on leave, pursuing her PhD in Ethnomusicology at King's College London.
