Barbie Maan had never foreseen a career in music for herself. She aspired to pursue either medicine or teaching. Yet, she claims that her inclination toward music is genetic since her entire family has a musical background - her father owned a business that sold harmoniums all over Punjab and several of her family members taught Indian classical music professionally; one of them even had a double PhD in music. But, her journey in music began through a post on social media.
In 2018, Barbie, who was just 21-year-old college-goer in Punjab, uploaded a video of herself singing a ghazal on social media site, Facebook. Although she had not many expectations from the video, it ended up garnering over 10,000 likes and caught the attention of several musicians, including the esteemed music director Preet Hundal from the Punjabi music industry. Since then, Barbie has released several Punjabi pop songs, including Akhiyan, Meri Sahelliyan, and Ajj Kal Ve. Her latest single, Teri Gali, which released on June 27, has garnered over 28 million views on YouTube in less than a month. But, Barbie seems overwhelmed by her own success and describes her music career brought to fruition as “aise hi ho gaya (it happened naturally).”
Written and composed by Guru Randhawa, singer, songwriter and composer known for massive musical hits like High Rated Gabru, Lahore and Suit, Teri Gali is a romantic number but with a heavy tone of sadness. Stating that working with Guru Randhawa was a dream come true, Barbie admits falling in love with the song and lyrics as soon as the sample audio was sent to her. "It is a very soulful melody, beautifully created by Guru Randhawa. This song has a bit of an old school vibe. We recorded it within an hour and I think it is different from the rest of the songs that I have done till now. I hope the audience loves it just as much as I do," she gushes.
The song is picturised against the backdrop of India-Pakistan partition in 1947 and features Barbie along with Bigg Boss Season 13 contestant Asim Riaz as lovers whose story ends abruptly as she moves to India while he is left back in Lahore. "I cried after watching the music video," Barbie admits.
The 23-year-old is also candid about her experience as a woman in the music industry. Observing that women are underrepresented in the field, she says, "There are so many talented girls that I have met and interacted with, but they aren’t given the same platform, because their family does not support them... I feel very sad when I think about so much talent that is wasted."
Talking about future plans, Barbie would like to be known as an independent artist. "I want to be versatile. I want to experiment with different genres of music, like Bollywood and Punjabi folk," she says. When asked what's next, Barbie hints at a new album coming up next year and reveals to have recorded roughly 20 songs for the same. When it comes to her next single, the singer promises it to have a happier tone.