MUMBAI: The power of social media has been proven time and again. The recent success and emergence of Lisa Mishra is a validation enough. Lisa Mishra, a known artiste for her cover rendition, did her routine of doing a cover for Tareefan, the promotional song of Veere Di Weddingand tagged the producers and star cast of the film and song. Little did the Chicago based data analyst and singer know, it would transform her life within no time.

“Rhea messaged me directly on Instagram and within a span of twenty minutes she sorted the arrangements to fly me out. Within 24 hours of Sonam reposting the video, I was on a flight to Mumbai. It was a whirlwind few days,” recollects Lisa.

The entire star cast and producers posted the video on their social media handles, making it popular. Within no time, the producer of the film Rhea Kapoor flew her down to Mumbai to record a reprise version of the song, featuring the lead cast.

Lisa had no idea her version of Tareefan would take Bollywood by storm, “I think when you’ve been making publicly-available music as long as I have (since 2007), you sort of just do it for the love of the music. I never had hopes of it going this far, but rather was just focused on always putting out the best possible work. I of course love the feedback from the people who’ve made the original, so I’m used to tagging the musicians and actors involved. Despite that, I could’ve never predicted something this incredible would happen.”

Her social media following hiked in a very short span of time, “The response has been insane. My Instagram followers more than quadrupled after Sonam posted the video, and YouTube has grown healthily too. I am in data analytics by profession, so numbers are my bread and butter. Even with that level of data familiarity, I was astounded by the growth! Social media really is something amazing.” The fact that her Instagram following was 25k that shot up to 110 and still growing says a lot. And if that’s not enough, the hike on her YouTube channel from 98k to 120k right now adds to the glory.

Her version of Tareefan is a fused version with DJ Snake and Justin Bieber’s Let Me Love You. “I think the production on Tareefan reminded me a lot of Let Me Love You. The style of both songs is very lo-fi EDM and the chord progression is similar. So, when I first heard Tareefan I found myself naturally singing the Let Me Love You hook on top of Tareefan. A couple hours later, I picked up my guitar and pressed record. The rest is history!”

There has been galore of compliments from everywhere, “Of course, nothing beats the response from Sonam and Rhea, because they didn’t just compliment the work – they went out of their way to source me directly for the song. I also cherish the response from their father, as we grew up being huge fans of him. The response has been something I could’ve never imagined. I’m so deeply grateful for the experience and can’t believe my debut in India charted as number 9. It’s funny to step back and consider the magnitude of this experience, because I sometimes have to remind myself that it’s my own life. I can’t thank Rhea and Sonam enough, because they’ve completely changed my life in the matter of a few weeks.”

The song is originally composed by DJ Qaran Mehta and sung by Badshaah, “Qaran is by far the most in-sync I’ve felt with a producer. We’re both really particular about creating a sound, so we communicated effortlessly in the studio. He’s got a very technical ear for production and vocals and coupled with how invested I am in perfecting a take – it was truly an ideal match. I was joking that such a seamless flow might’ve spoiled me! I also always treasure the response from the original musicians behind the song, so Qaran and Badshah’s words count for a lot. The people behind the music are often the greatest critics and have the best suggestions to offer, so to know that they appreciated my work was truly humbling.”

Check the track here –

The young artiste, is overwhelmed to say the least with the response and love received, but she stays grounded, “I’m going to keep my desk job for now but I hope for more opportunities. I’d love to keep making music for Indian audiences, and I’m honored to have worked alongside such a wonderful team. Fingers crossed you’ll see more of me soon.”