The first video is up, and it's seriously goofy! I am really so excited about this, mostly because every time my dad acts I can not believe how naturally gifted he is. He honestly never breaks out of character. He was doing THE most insanely funny things, and I will admit that I pulled a "Jimmy Fallon" once or twice where I couldn't help but laugh during he skit. (Remember when Jimmy used to do that during an SNL skit once and a while? It was very cute!) Anyway, dad, on the other hand never once broke out of the Guru Kanaiya character, and he was so incredibly funny the whole time! (Maybe I should just quit the music biz, and be his agent.....hehe)

Ok, so webisode 1 is officially up! It all leads to the premiere of my music video for "Bollywood Girl" which was shot by the 25-Emmy-Award Winning Company "Redline Films"!!

Here's the first of four! http://www.youtube.com/tinasugandh

My (celeb-filled) CW-11 Morning Show Performance!

I recently performed my song "Bollywood Girl" on the CW-11 and it was SO exciting! Everyone at that station was so incredibly sweet!

(*The entire performance can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/tinasugandh ).

I didn't even mind waking up at 2:30am to get ready. (Ok, maybe I did mind that just a bit...) My poor makeup artist had to come over around 3:15am! (A huge thank you to Alexa for doing that! www.theglamfairy.com)

Ok, so the first person I saw when I walked in was Dee Snider (the lead singer of Twisted Sister). It's kind of surreal to be in sleepy mode and then walk right into Dee! I have met him several times before, and every time he had asked about the album I would reply, "still working on it"! So when I proudly told Dee that my album is finally out, he sincerely (in that hardcore, passionate NYC way) said "Congrats, this is YOUR time", which was really, really sweet.

Then we ran into Mookie Wilson, who is THE man!! (You baseball fans know why!)

Then we went into the greenroom and got ready for the interview and performance. It was me, my dancers- Ryan Holder and Brandon William, my choreographer Ayesha Khanna (www.Bollywoodfunknyc.com), and Alexa. We were all fairly calm before the performance, and went completely bonkers afterward. (Yes, I used the word "bonkers"). In fact, I may just put some footage up on my youtube show of us in, um, full-blown-bonkers mode. Stay tuned....

Anyway, after the performance was over, we ran into Jennifer Love Hewitt (who looked SO pretty), and Jamie Kennedy, and Marlon Wayans. Marlon was totally confused when I told him about the tabla so I switched to the term "Indian drum", and he said (in that hysterical "Marlon" way) "why didn't you just call them 'Indian drums'?! If you had said 'Indian drums' I would have known what you were talking about all along!" He's seriously hysterical.

As always with any performance, there were little things that went wrong. For example, at the very being of my song "Bollywood Girl", the veil that I bend down to pick up was missing! (Hopefully no one could see that I panicked on the inside for a split second). Also, my foot jewelry starting slipping off half way through the performance and it kept poking me in the bottom of my foot. OUCH.

Other than tiny things like that, it was an AWESOME day! Thank you CW-11!!! I can't wait to come back!

My debut album "TablaGirl" is out - after 3 years in the making!

I am SO proud to announce that my debut album is officially out!! I have to admit that I am a bit nervous. It took me four years to get it out into the world, and I am praying that all my efforts translate into you guys enjoying it!!

You can find it at : http://www.tinasugandh.com

(*If you want all the lyrics to the entire album, they are on the digital booklet on iTunes)


It's been a long road! I have been wanting to share my debut "TablaGirl" with you for so long. It actually took me 3 years to make the album, since my producer (Angelo Montrone) and I wanted to make something more organic and heartfelt by using tons of live instruments. (The other producer on this album is Lester Mendez - Shakira, Jewel, etc). Although there is a strong live element to it, "TablaGirl" is still a feel-good mainstream pop album - but it has a huge Bollywood flare. (I really can't believe that after all these years of doing interviews and talking about what the album will sound like, you can actually just finally hear it for yourselves!! Anyway, I actually went to India and discovered all these gorgeous Indian instruments to use for the album, (and I basically just kept buying more and more of these instruments until Sony told me it was time for me to wrap it up and come home!) Some of my favorite "exotic" instruments that we used are the tabla (obviously), dholak, dhol, naal, ghatam, santoor, sitar, harmonium, ghungaru, bansuri, bul bul tarang, been, ektar, tanpura, goob goob, daffali, mridangam, and SO much more. (Yes, I know it sounds like I'm just throwing random syllables together and making all these words up but they all are really amazing instruments!) We also used the more common instruments of course like guitar, bass, drums, violin, etc. It was an absolute honor to watch these instrumentalists from all over the world throw down their magic on my album!

The other reason that this album took so long to release was because last year, my worst nightmare became a reality when I lost my beautiful, incredibly radiant, always-smiling, and eternally-positive best friend last year - my mom. I took the whole year off to take care of her and I can not describe how incredibly painful last year was because there really are no words. Although, since mom always taught us to see the good-and ONLY the good in everything and everyone, I will say that I am SO grateful that she got to sing on this album. This album would not have been complete without my mom's voice on it. My producer knew how important it was that I have my entire family on this album, and so he actaully flew out to California, and shipped all his recording gear out there in order to record my entire family, including my sister, brother-in-law, and niece and nephew! For example, that's my newphew's voice you hear at the very end of "HisStory", that's my mom's voice you hear at the outro of "Stay", it's my sister's voice that you hear for the intro of "T.here I.s N.o A.lternative" and it's my dad that you hearing shouting in the middle of "Break Me"! All of us say "namaste" at the very end of the album after the last track "Stay". My niece was so little at the time that we needed to use studio tricks to piece together syllables that sounded like "Namaste" (That is the ONE time I will admit to using "studio tricks"!) We basically just tickled her a lot until we got her to make some sounds-very cute!!

Point being, it's been a long road, and I so grateful for all of it. I'm grateful for the low points in my career as well as the high points because the lows kept me constantly aware of what's really important in life-family, love, smiling, spreading positivity to the world, etc. I am also extremenly grateful to have had a mother that I will strive to be like until the day I am gone - beautiful, radiant, selfless, open-minded, healthy, always-smiling, super-positive, lights up a room when she walks in it, and the list goes on and on.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for everything! Thank you for your support, patience, and especially for all of the emails I received last year with words of hope and encouragement.
Tons of love,
-Tina

I just wanted to send a huge THANKS to glam.com! This was very sweet of them!

http://blogs.glam.com/glamblush/2009/03/11/one-to-know-tina-sugandh



Since they humbled me with the title of "World's First Bollywood Popstar", here's some "Bollywood" henna for you guys!

Here are the lyrics you all keep emailing me about! Thank you for listening, and to all of you that contributed to this song getting up to #4 on the Billboard Dance Charts, thank you SO much!


Break Me

I like to dream
I’m acting in a Bollywood scene
You’re just what you seem
But then reality wakes me
Oh-no

I wanna tell you to stop
I wanna know what you got
(Maharaja, you’re making me hot)
Please walk away
Before I make a mistake
(Lady Sugandh, you’re about to break)


Chorus
You tempt me and it’s just not right
You melt me ‘till I just can’t fight
I resist your love with all my might
But you break me


I like to fly
Up to a cloud where it’s just you and I
But then the rainfall washes the sky
Will reality catch me
Oh-no

I wanna tell you to stop
I wanna know what you got
(Maharaja, you’re making me hot)
Please walk away
Before I make a mistake
(Lady Sugandh, you’re about to break)



Chorus
You tempt me and it’s just not right
You melt me ‘till I just can’t fight
I resist your love with all my might
But you break me

   

Hey you, spicy thing
Your masala makes me scream

Maharaja, what you gonna do?
You gonna be cool?
You gonna be true?


Chorus