Behind the mic, a singer can be any person they want to be, depending on the song. Christina Andrew will vouch for that. In Huma Qureshi’s Baby Do Die Do, the singer explored her soft side with the romantic number, Kaun Hai Woh. In sharp contrast to it was Kitni Gardi Hai, a raw, rap-led track that captures the chaos of Mumbai.
Mohit Chauhan
For Andrew, the opportunity to inhabit both worlds on the same soundtrack was impossible to pass up. “Kaun Hai Woh required a soft, breathy vocal. It’s the moment where Baby [played by Qureshi] finally begins to reciprocate the love that Siddhu has been expressing throughout the first half of the song. She has been hesitant all along; then she finally lets her guard down. That’s where my part begins. It’s a beautiful love song; it almost feels like you’re floating. That feeling of tenderness and surrender is what I wanted to bring into my voice,” reflected Andrew.
(L-R) Huma Qureshi and Rachit Singh in ‘Baby Do Die Do’
Kitni Gardi Hai, composed by Arjun Iyer, demanded something else entirely. The song introduces Baby’s hitwoman alter ego. Finding the right voice for that track became an exercise of sorts. The singer recalled, “We recorded it multiple times to arrive at the right emotional texture. The voice had to feel personal yet completely nonchalant, almost like an internal monologue. It needed to sound matter-of-fact rather than performative, and translating all of that through the voice was the real challenge.”
The ability to slip into a character isn’t something Andrew learnt overnight. Before finding her way into film music, she had spent more than a decade working as an indie singer and voice-over artiste. “Being a professional singer and voice-over artiste for over a decade, stepping into a part comes quite naturally to me. My early years in radio taught me a lot of what I use in my work today, from understanding emotions and storytelling to finding the right texture in a voice. I never imagined Bollywood would become a part of my journey, but here we are!”