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Success At Young Age Gurung follows the legacy of her musical family with success at a very young age
By THAKUR AMGAI
The success she has earned at a very tender age is neither unjustifiable nor unanticipated. When she learned and mimicked the songs composed for established singers by her father as a little girl , the big names in the music fraternity already had high hopes for her. She has not let them down. Reema Gurung today, has a wide host of fans and has already established herself as a leading female playback singer.
Born on August 24, 1976 in Kathmandu , Gurung is gifted with a melodious voice and a flair for singing. Her talent in music got a fertile ground to be nurtured. She was groomed under the aegis of senior musician Prakash Gurung, her father, and senior singer Kiran Pradhan, who was the head teacher at her school. Gurung and Pradhan both noticed her innate talent. They would ask her to sing songs and encourage her.
This inspiration led her to participate in school level contests. Gurung sung a patriotic song at the contest held at Bal Mandir when she was studying in grade three. She won the first prize. With this break she made her talent known beyond her family and school. The trend of participating in the contests continued and Gurung earned more shields and awards for her school.
When she was studying in grade seven she was invited to participate in the 'World Children Music Festival' in Tokyo , Japan . Gurung represented the children of Nepal with songs based on the folk melodies of the ethnic Tamangs. "This was the time when I felt most patriotic,' recalls Gurung. "I understood that one's country and people come closer to heart when you are in a foreign land."
Gurung acquired initial knowledge of music at high school. She took a paper in music in her high school exams. In addition, her musical knowledge was honed by her father, Prakash Gurung, who is a teacher of dozens of famous names today.
In 1992, she went to Radio Nepal to take a voice test. A couple of months later she participated in the Nationwide Modern Songs Contest, an annual event of Radio Nepal with the song 'Dherai Din Pachhi Timro Yad Ayo'. Again, she won the first prize. This is also her first song on record.
Impressed by the popularity of her first song, producer of the Nepali feature film 'Andolan' approached her. Her debut play back song 'Kahile Dekhi Chadhyo Mama Lalima' became even more popular.
She made progress by leaps and bounds in the subsequent years. With popular songs like 'Najarko Doshi Bani', 'Farkera Lina Ayenau', Lahure Daile', one after another, she never had to look back.
More and more producers and musicians started approaching her. Within the next few years she was already an established and sought after playback singer. To date, Gurung has lent her voice to about forty Nepali feature films.
Although, playback singing remains her forte, Gurung has sung a large number of songs of other genres. About three hundred recorded songs in her voice include mostly modern and some folk and pop songs. "While traveling to various parts of Nepal in the course of stage performance I have found that I need to sing songs of all genres with equal importance in order to address the larger sector of Nepali people," said Gurung.
Indeed, she has sung songs in languages that are not hers. In addition to Nepali and Gurung songs, she has sung songs in Newari and Tamang languages and some foreign languages in group.
After about a dozen years of her formal entry to the music industry, Gurung has recently come out with her first solo album 'Prahini'. Before this, her songs had been collected in dozens of collection albums.
A few years back Gurung won the 'Best Female Vocal' category one each in pop and folk genres, in the Hits F. M. Music Awards, an annual musical contest based on audience polling.
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