Celina Sharma on her career so far and the power of SoundOn

Rising star Celina Sharma joins Headliner for a chat about her fascinating career so far, becoming a social media sensation, and the “unique” power of SoundOn in getting her music to a wider audience…

Since arriving on UK shores from Australia less than five years ago, Celina Sharma has achieved more than most could hope to in twice that time. Bearing in mind that two of those years were blighted by the pandemic, her accomplishments are rendered all the more remarkable.

Equipped with a determination to crack the music industry via her unique brand of pop, Sharma left her homeland for London at the age of just 16. Since arriving in 2019, she has notched up a dizzying raft of accolades and figures. The BBC Asian Network announced her as the BBC 2019 Future Sound, making her the youngest artist ever to achieve the honour. Her 2019 single Lean On featuring Indian superstar Emiway Bantai has racked up over 100 million streams globally and is now certified Double Platinum in India, while her debut EP CECE streamed over 200 million worldwide and has been playlisted on BBC Radio 1, Triple J and KISS FM.

To date, she has amassed a combined digital audience of over four million, becoming one of the fastest growing UK artists on TikTok with 2.4 million followers and 38 million likes, in excess of 500,000 YouTube subscribers, 420,000 Snapchat subs, and 550,000 Instagram followers.

At the time of joining us, she is readying herself for the release of her as yet untitled next EP.

“I'm super excited about it,” she beams from her London home via Zoom. “It's definitely taken a bit of time. I've been working on that a lot so far this year and have been doing a lot of social media as well, just trying to grow my platforms.”

The distinct sound that has come to define Sharma’s work stems from a childhood that drew influence from Australian pop and Bollywood.

“I grew up listening to Delta Goodrem, Guy Sebastian, Kylie Minogue, and a lot of Australian artists,” she says of her formative years. “And I was into Beyonce, as well as old soul like Etta James and Aretha Franklin. But my love of music definitely came from watching Bollywood films as a kid. My dad's Indian and he would always put on a lot of Bollywood films, which have a lot of singing, acting, dancing, all that kind of stuff. And I was just always that kind of performing arts kid. Even in preschool I used to sell little tickets pretending I was Gabriela from High School Musical [laughs]. My teachers would say to my mum, ‘your daughter can hold a note’. So, I started singing lessons when I was six years old and then I was doing a lot of competitions.

“When I was in high school, I put some covers up on YouTube and Instagram and quickly got signed to a major label in the UK and that's when I moved over. That's when it really started taking off for me, when I was about 16-17.”

Understandably, Sharma took some time to adjust to life on the other side of the planet, away from her family and friends at such a young age. And within less than a year of her arrival, would find both her professional and personal life blighted by Covid.

“It was very hard moving over because I didn't know anyone here apart from my managers,” she explains. “And life's really different here; it's really fast-paced. But then COVID hit right after I got here. I was 17 and you want to go out and meet new people, but I was now in a place I didn't know where I had to stay at home.

“And that put me behind a couple years in my career as well. I lost those two years because I couldn't travel, I couldn't get into the studio. It was difficult, but it was a blessing in some ways because my TikTok really popped off. I was at home making a lot of social media content, so I was posting musical clips and random stuff on TikTok. I just hopped on every trend I could, and I was dancing and singing acapella. And every video that I was posting was going pretty viral.”

Armed with a significant following across multiple social media platforms, Sharma emerged from the pandemic with a sizable, highly engaged audience with which to share her music. Her ability to create compelling content suited to each platform continues to serve her well but is something that requires constant work.

“It’s hard to get the balance right sometimes,” she considers “For example, I did a song with Indian rapper Emiway Bantai (Lean On) which blew up and a lot of his fan base came onto my Instagram, and they were like, ‘why don't you do more of the Indian stuff?’ And when I release English music some of them are not really interested. But I want to represent my heritage, so I’m trying to get the best of both worlds.

“A lot of artists hate social media, but I don’t mind it, and it's only going to help me get to where I want to be,” she continues. “There are people who have been following me for such a long time and it's so nice for them to grow with me through this journey. People can see that through social media - where I started and how I've progressed. My music is changing, and people are seeing that.”

A crucial aspect in Sharma’s success so far has been her relationship with TikTok’s music distribution and marketing platform, SoundOn, which allows artists to distribute their music on TikTok and across major streaming services, such as Spotify, Apple Music, and others, while maintaining full ownership and artist-friendly royalties without administrative fees.

“I was very fortunate to be in a writing camp with two amazing producers,” says Sharma, describing how she came to work with SoundOn and the impact it has had on her career. “It was like a TikTok writing camp and because they'd seen some of my videos blow up they wanted to get me in. We wrote a song called Killer and that went really well. It was Top 5 in the UK on TikTok for around two months. They really helped me and they've always been really supportive. I think they've seen my journey, and they know that I started with TikTok and that's how I grew on that platform.

“If anything blows up on TikTok you're possibly going to get on the charts, you're going to be trending on other social media platforms, and that’s one of the reasons why being supported by TikTok is really important. A song from 10 years ago, if it starts trending again, gets in the charts. So, there's a bit of a difference between signing to a major label and SoundOn.”

For now, Sharma is setting her sights on some live performances later in the year, as well as putting the final touches to her upcoming EP showcasing a new sound. It is, she concludes, shaping up to be her biggest release yet.

“The new EP is definitely different to the first one I released because I was 19 when I released that and now I'm 21,” she says. “I've gone through a lot more life experiences to write about. Also, this EP is a bit more on the UK side, it's got a bit more of that urban UK vibe to it. I've been living here for five years, and I really love the UK music scene and we’ve taken some inspiration from that. It's going to be a six-song EP, and we have gone back and forth about some of the songs and I need to think about a name for it. But I'm just so excited for everyone to hear what we’ve been working on!”