Sonia Arora: Every singer wants to get into Bollywood playback singing

Guru Ji Shukar Karaan — her devotional track currently stands at more than 40 million views on YouTube, and Sonia Arora credits it for reviving her career. Hailing from a musical family, she says, “My father, late Baldev Raj Arora was a singer, he also sung at dargahs. We were small children and would clap while standing at the back. When he passed away, my brother and sister discussed how can we take his legacy forward, varna qawwal ke ghar sab khatam ho jaayega. I wrote and sung Guru Ji myself after a few years, and didn’t know it’d make me stand on the stage again, and the good times would be back.”

Post the song’s success, the singer started receiving requests to perform at weddings, lend her voice to devotional tracks. And she shares that such is her popularity on that front today, that people ask her availability of dates and fix the wedding of their children accordingly. “I’ve performed in over 28 countries,” she reveals.

Keeping this in mind, Arora came out with her wedding centric song, Laado a couple of years back, which became immensely popular and she has followed it up with another wedding song, Khushi Viaah Di.

“Laado had done really well, so we thought we should release a song which could be played at all houses where a wedding is taking place. Laado was for the girl’s side, this one is for the entire family,” she tells us.

While live shows and singles keep her busy, Arora does have her eyes set on Bollywood playback singing, and she laments that Covid spoiled all her plans.

“Harr artiste ki khwahish hoti hai ki Bollywood tak jaana hai. They want that apart from what they sing really well, they should also get to croon romantic or sad songs, aur uski chhaap toh Bollywood hi deta hai. It just can’t be that I don’t think about it. But, these two years got spoiled due to Covid-19; I had almost reached there but I’ll have to prepare again,” she ends.