Mathangi Jagdish a.k.a Ma.Ja is a playback singer , songwriter , stage performer and MTV coke studio season one artist with over 490 film songs to her credit. She has sung in more than 18 languages in a career spanning more than a decade and a half.
She has worked with the who’s who of the industry , starting with her playback break in the year 2001 with Mr Deva (Anju mani, Kokkarakara girigiri) , then with the Oscar and Grammy winning A R Rahman (aha tamizhamma) , the legendary Mr. Illayaraja (apdi paakarduna vena) , Harris Jeyraj (x macchi y macchi in Tamil Ghajini) , D Imman (hot party) , Prashanth Pillai (manogatham bhawan) , Devi shri prasad, Mr Bharadwaj, Mr Vidhyasagar to name a few.
She has anchored , mentored and judged on some very popular TV shows like Sangamam & Super Singer on Vijay Tv , Sangeetha Maha Yuddham (Tamil version of music ka maha muqaabla) on Sun Tv and Tanishq Swarna Sangeetham on Raj Tv.
Mathangi has performed in USA, Germany , Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Botswana, Australia, UK and Oman.
Trained in Carnatic , Hindustani and Western music , her voice is a blend of sultry deep low notes laced with the sensibilities of blues and jazz, with a generous dose of runs and riffs of R&B and Indian classical.
Her songwriting , which is largely in English, is driven by her personal experiences of life and covers themes that vary from the frustrations of not knowing how to cook and clean to encountering the life philosophy that changed her life to not being able to shut up despite doctors orders to dealing with karmic patterns. She draws inspiration from artists like Amy Winehouse, India Arie, Ella Fitzgerald , Adele and Lauryn Hill.
Ma.Ja started her platform WHOLISTIC VOCALIST in 2017. The intention was to support those who are artistically inclined or even vocally curious to work on areas that support the craft by creating awareness, helping break belief systems that hold people back and connect the dots. Wholistic vocalist is also an endeavour to connect like minded people with each other, so that they can inspire and support each other and embark on a journey of growth and self discovery. Ma.Ja does workshops, offers one on one coaching sessions, offers accountability and support in small groups through her Mastermind Circle and she also has a Bootcamp called What’s your SinGnature.
