Vibha Saraf

Vibha Saraf (born 10 May 1986) is an Indian singer-songwriter and Bollywood playback singer. She performs folk songs and writes and performs music for soundtracks, primarily Kashmiri folk-inspired songs. Her work has been featured on the soundtracks for the films Raazi, which went to win Best Film in the 64th Filmfare Awards, and Gully Boy, the fourth highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2019. In 2019, she was jointly nominated with Harshdeep Kaur for Best Female Playback Singer for the 65th Filmfare Awards and Best Female Playback Singer for the 20th International Indian Film Academy Awards for the song Dilbaro, from the 2018 drama thriller Raazi.

Early life and education

Vibha Saraf was born in the Fateh Kadal neighbourhood of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir in India. During the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the region, her family relocated to New Delhi, India, when Saraf was three years old.

She began taking classes at Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, studying Hindustani classical music for four years before studying pop music for five years. Saraf worked as a management consultant for five years before quitting to pursue music.

Career

In 2013, Saraf moved to Mumbai to pursue her career in music. That same year, Saraf performed on the Gully Boy soundtrack in the duet "Kab Se Kab Tak" with Ranveer Singh.

Saraf has written music for Nucleya, whom she met briefly at an airport after a performance. The two exchanged music over WhatsApp and Saraf wrote lyrics. She has since written two songs for Nucleya and performed on one, the latter which was "Behka," for the film High Jack. Vibha also appears in her own music video 'Jalwe' along with Absar Zahoor.

She has sung for Bollywood and also in other Indian languages including Kashmiri, Telugu, Bengali & Tamil. She writes lyrics for both film and non-film songs & also composes songs for both the film industry and Independent music.

Singer

Film Songs

Songs Her non film songs where Vibha has composed, sung and written lyrics. Year Song title Artist(s) Note(s) 2017 Dhoop Nucleya ft. Vibha Saraf Single2019LoriNucleya ft. Vibha SarafFrom the EP Tota Myna by Nucleya 2020 Chandni Rajeev Bhalla ft. Vibha Saraf Single

Other language songs In addition to Hindi and Kashmiri, she has sung songs in Bangla, Telugu and Tamil.

Musical influence

Saraf's music is influenced by traditional music of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh. Saraf cites the music she heard growing up, as sung by her grandparents and mother, as making Kashmiri music "subconsciously" in her. award for the song Dilbaro, Raazi at the 20th IIFA Awards held on 18 September 2019 in Mumbai, India.

Saraf and Harshdeep Kaur also jointly won the Best Female Playback Singer at REEL Movie Awards 2019 for Dilbaro, Raazi, as well as the Zee Cine Award for Best Playback Singer – Female for the same song.