Biography

Born in North York, Canada to immigrants from Trinidad & Tobago, Rani Chatoorgoon grew up in the small town of Deep River. With Indian ancestral roots, Rani’s grew up with the culture of her lineage and at the age of four, she taught herself to play the harmonium and sing traditional songs in Hindi and Sanskrit. Compelled by an urgent need to express her own thoughts and emotions through music, Rani began writing original songs in her early twenties. Her observations of people, their dark and light sides, of world events and their consequences remains her inspiration when writing. Sonically, Rani has developed a unique hybrid style that combines her love of symphonic rock with the melodies and instruments of India. Listening to her albums one will hear a variety of Indian instruments such as sitar, santoor, sarangi, sarod, bansuri, tabla, dholak and naal, woven together with the instruments that form the basis of a western rock band. Rani is influenced by a variety of artists including Evanescence, Within Temptation, Sarah McLachlan, Loreena McKennitt, Led Zeppelin, the Cranberries, Lata Mangeshkar, A.R. Rahman. Since her 2009 debut album “Illusions of Loneliness”, Rani has released original music to critical acclaim (Weightless Blood - 2012, Samsara - 2016 and Chaotic Wonder - 2018). In 2019, Rani finished in the Top 10 of Canada's national contest, CBC Searchlight and was a semi-finalist in the Unsigned Only global competition. www.ranichatoorgoon.bandcamp.com