Shreya Sotong

Shreya Sotang was born in Darjeeling to Uday Sotang and Manila Sotang, famous singing duo of the country. She migrated to Nepal in her early childhood and was brought up in Kathmandu. She finished her high school from Little Angels’ School. Shreya went to United Academy and Campion College for her college degrees. She became one of the country’s youngest and brightest faces after the release of her first album Suruwat in 2007 which was a big hit. Shreya is currently working on her second album.

Shreya, who won Image Award for New Artist, had a musical family background and her father and her mother both being in the music field has certainly helped her fine tune her singing skills. Udaya and Manila themselves are very renowned for their singing style in their modern song genre. She grew up in the musical environment listening to her parents sing and watching them perform on concerts. So, singing comes naturally to her. She was lucky enough to get talented parents and to be raised in that kind of environment.

Music, for her, is passion. She loves to sing and loves to perform as well. She uses music as an material to heal all her sorrows, sadness and despair in her life. She says, “Whenever I get angry or whenever I am in sorrow or some unhappy moments come in my life I just listen to music and that gives me such a nice feeling. It’s like divine for me.”

Inspired by her parents, she slowly began to develop interest to pursue her career in this field.  When her parents used to perform on stage, a subtle desire to perform like her parents in future got its root in her heart. She adds that her parents never stopped her or never prevented her from fulfilling her wishes or desires and that kept her dreams going. Constant encouragement from her parents, her innate talent and the passion for music worked as a booster in her life. When those forces came together her music career was propelled redefining the meaning of success. She credits her parents as well for her success.

When asked which of her parents song she would like to sing or remake she said with a smile, “Actually, there is a song I am planning to remake it in my second album. It was from the album Upama and the song is kaha kaha dukhcha priya. I really like that song so I asked them for the permission and I got it but they told me they had a condition that I would not kill the original spirit of the song.”(Laughs)

She says that music was not her aim in her childhood, whenever she used to be asked about her aim she used to tell all that it’s a school teacher. So, if she was not in the music field she loved to be in the teaching sector as a school teacher or a Montessori teacher. She further added that she has a plan to open a Montessori in near future.

She considers herself working in pop genre because she says she is related to it. She also likes other genres’ songs but she says it does not suit her and she further says,” Pop song is very much our song and at the same time I wanted to do different from my parents’ genre because if I did not, I would be compared to them. I don’t mean to say that I hate being compared to them. It would be an honor to be compared to the likes of Uday and Manila Sotang, but they are too big names for me to be compared with.”

Among two things, Name/Fame and Respect, which are considered very important in our life, she chooses respect. She says, “Name/fame does not have any meaning if you do not have respect. She does not care who you are, a celebrity or just an everyday person. We should go after respect rather than name and fame. She considers respect a big thing in life as we have to work hard to earn ourselves respect.

Asked about level of Nepali Music industry, she said, “The professionalism in the Nepali Music industry has certainly increased or seen a growth both in terms of technology and quality. Media has played a big role in the development of the present scenario of the music industry. It has improved a lot compared to the past but it does not mean past songs were bad past songs were mesmerizing but technically there were many aspects lacking in it but things are changing for good now.’ She further adds,” Nevertheless, there are many things that we need to learn from the predecessors of our industry. Hard work, determination the spirit of fighting the odds and going that extra mile to give the best are something their legacy has left behind. They made the foundation for the structure Nepali music industry is on now. We need to capitalize on them.”

On improving the level of music Industry she said, ” First of all, we ourselves should be updated to new technologies and we should not hesitate to learn. It is never too late to learn anything. We should have humility and try to rid ourselves of the attitude. If we have to learn something we can learn it by keeping all that negative part behind. We should have interest and should be hard working.”

She thinks that a Nepali artist could depend on earnings of music fully. She can tell that from her personal experience as she has seen what her parents have done. Her parents did nothing except music and that they raised her and her brother and all of their family. But she further says, “It’s harder, if one is a fresh or not as popular.”

When asked about her most memorable on stage performance, Shreya does not have a particular performance, before going to perform she gets a bit scared and thinks about the response from the audience. But this all happens only before going to stage, once she is on the stage she puts aside above mentioned weaknesses and starts performing and interacting.

She wants to spend rest of her life being happy. She candidly revealed to us that she wants to get married at the right age and wants to start her family, which also includes having babies. She also wants to do something in music field like her parents did. Right now she assumes her second album as her future plan. She has not been able to focus on it though due to tours. In the near future she will be venturing into some business projects. Like mentioned earlier, she also has a plan to open a Montessori or a restaurant or something which will be different from her career in the music field.
She is scared of expectations but looking at the phenomenal success of her first album we can expect her second album to be as successful as the first one. And, she also assure all her fans that she will not let them down. She urges her fans to love and to listen to Nepali music. She further requests them to give positive feedbacks or comments for her future projects. She says, “ She is also expecting a lot from her fans.”
Shreya was a hotshot in the music industry after the release of her first single and her success was duly recognized with hosts of awards for her debut albums. She won 11th Image Award for New Artist for her debut album Suruwat. Same year she won Annapurna Award for Pop Vocal, Hits F.M Award for New artist and Pop Vocal, Bindhyabasini Award, Image Award for Female Pop Vocal and many more.
Shreya attributes her opportunities and experiences of working with who’s who of the industry, traveling and the huge fan base to her achievements.

5 things that we should know about her:

• She loves singing.
• She likes to travel.
• She is a bit lazy person.
• She loves watching movies that have happy endings.
• She loves to cook.