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The Conversation

Factual: Life Stories

Two women from different parts of the world share the stories of their lives

Two women from different parts of the world, united by a common passion, experience or expertise, share the stories of their lives.

The Conversation: Singers: Lisa Fischer and Kanika Kapoor

Lisa Fischer (left) and Kanika Kapoor (Right)

29/06/2015

Singers: Lisa Fischer and Kanika Kapoor

BBC World Service - The Conversation, Singers: Lisa Fischer and Kanika Kapoor

The voices of Lisa Fischer and Kanika Kapoor help the stars of stage and screen to shine

What's it like to duet with Mick Jagger? How does it feel to have Bollywood's leading ladies mime to your music? Award-winning singers Lisa Fischer and Kanika Kapoor share stories

Grammy award-winning backing singer Lisa Fischer has been performing with The Rolling Stones since 1989. She says duetting with Mick Jagger is electric, "he's unpredictable and he's exciting and he's mischievous". Lisa grew up in a musical family and trained to be an opera singer, but soon swapped the theatre for the New York club scene. She describes Luther Vandross as her mentor; he taught her to "wait, listen and don't sing while I'm trying to teach you the part". Lisa says the key to being a good backing singer is to listen to what the artist says, and to "what they don't say".

Kanika Kapoor is an award-winning performer who has made her name as a 'playback' singer in Indian cinema. Leading actresses in the all-singing, all-dancing Bollywood musical blockbusters mime to her vocals. Kanika says you have to "become" the actress, because "body language has to come out of your vocals". She was classically trained from a young age, but her voice has only recently become the soundtrack of some of India's biggest films. She sang the song Lovely for Deepika Padukone in the hit movie Happy New Year and recently won the Filmfare award for Best Female Playback Singer, for the song Baby Doll.

(Picture: Lisa Fischer (left). Credit: Djeneba Aduayom. Kanika Kapoor (right) Credit: Tim Whitby/Getty Images]

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