Nethra Raman remembers her Blind Audition for The Voice vividly; saying goodbye to her family to walk on stage was the longest silence of her life.
“There was a lot of silence – I literally could hear my heart beating! My heart races anytime I’m nervous and I was like aah! It’s very loud! But it was very surreal,” she recalls.
Auditioning on the last day of the first round, spots were limited, and the pressure was on for the Sydney resident to make an impression on the judges.
“I was like, I just need one chair,” she remembers. “I’m just praying and praying… I reached that point of the song where I finished all my ‘big’ parts, and I was like, oh my god, there’s still no turned chairs!”
Then, with just a few seconds left, judge Kate Miller-Heidke finally span around!
“At that point, everyone in the crowd started screaming! I was so shocked, I burst into tears,” she says.
Raman says Miller-Heidke was moved by the storytelling in her rendition of the Lewis Capaldi song Bruises.
“I like to tell stories. I like to share experiences. It’s not just about the melody or the song. It’s also about the emotions and things that you’re sharing…everyone faces a lot of challenges in their lives. I quite enjoy embracing powerful and moving emotions through music,” she reflects.
Now 21 years old, Raman first started out singing Carnatic music when she was six, performing at temples and school functions, and has since branched out into performing Bollywood and pop music at multicultural events in her area, experiences which have shaped her artistic identity.
“I resonate deeply with Indian pop music and Bollywood music,” she says. “I find a lot of intrigue in the stylistic elements and the way that they tell stories… I learnt a lot of Hindi just by listening to songs and watching movies.”
Creating mashups and covers of everything from Enjoy Enjaami to Please Please Please, her TikTok @nethrasings has amassed over 15K followers, with her cover of Dekha Tenu from Mr and Mrs Mahi surpassing 1.7 million views.
@nethrasings here’s a lil female response to Dekha Tenu <3 #brown #singing #dekhatenu #MrandMrsMahi #fyp #indian #mohammadfaiz #dekhatenupehlipehliwaarre ♬ original sound – nethrasings
Though able to sing in Tamil, English, Hindi, Punjabi and perform Hindustani and Carnatic music, Raman was shy about applying for The Voice.
“My family and friends have always said, oh, you should go on The Voice, but I’ve been terrified my entire life about this,” she says. “[Now] I felt like I had reached that point where I felt a bit more ready and like I have enough confidence, so I kind of just did it one day.”
She’s excited to be mentored by Miller-Heidke, also a classically trained singer-songwriter, for the next stage of the contest, The Battles, where she will compete with another auditionee to earn a place on Team Kate.
“Kate is amazing. I feel like she’s very authentic on the show,” Nethra Raman says. “Her sense of humor and her sense of personality are something that I really resonate with. She really helped me to build my confidence.”
Currently juggling music with her full-time job in finance, she hopes to release original music next year in Hindi and Punjabi, languages she’s learnt from the people around her.
“It’s all happening very slowly, but I have a lot of plans, a lot of visions which I’m just trying to execute!”
Catch Nethra Raman as she goes head-to-head for a spot on Team Kate in The Voice, airing on Channel 7 on the 29 September.
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