"Everyone should form one's own style because when you
copy someone then it's not your own style. Lata didi is a great
singer, but I never copied her style because I didn't want to
become like her.
"I never wanted people to say that Asha sings like Lata.
Asha and Lata are different and I like it that way," said
the singer, whose work profile includes film music, pop, ghazals
and bhajans to traditional Indian Classical music, folk songs,
qawwalis and Rabindra Sangeet.
The singer has recently been named the goodwill ambassador
of the Chevrolet Global Indian Music Awards (GIMA).
"I really like the concept of these awards and I have
a lot of responsibility on my head as goodwill ambassador of
this initiative. New singers and good music that is lost will
come out with these awards," she said.
"It's very important to get good music in the forefront;
otherwise the music of India is getting finished," she
added.
Asha, known for songs like "Dum maro dum", "Mehbooba
mehbooba", "Mera kuch saaman", "Piya tu
ab to aaja" and "Chura liya hai tum ne" and her
masterpieces in "Umrao Jaan", including "Dil
cheez kya hai", believes that today's singers don't get
their due.
"Me and other singers of my time were lucky to get a chance
to sing film as well as non-film music. But today's singers
face many problems. Even though they sing well, they don't get
a chance. They don't get recognition and that's very sad.
"People don't even come to know who the singer is or who
has written a song. Only composers get the credit. No one else
gets credit," she said the singer who has sung in over
18 languages including Assamese, Hindi, Urdu, Telugu, Marathi,
Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, English, Russian, Czech,
Nepali, Malay and Malayalam.