Maithili Thakur is a very famous musical artist.
Introduction-
Maithili R Thakur was born on 25 July 2000 in Uren village, Benipatti, Madhubani district, Bihar.
Her mother tongue is Maithili.
Maithili’s father, Ramesh Thakur is a musician and he shifted from Bihar to Delhi in 1995 and used to work as a music teacher in Delhi but now, he trains his children in music.
Her mother, Bharti Thakur is a housewife.
Maithili’s younger brothers, Rishav Thakur and Ayachi Thakur are also musicians.
Rishav plays tablas whereas Ayachi is a chorister.
Becoming singer at a young age-
Maithili spent her early years of childhood with her grandparents in Benipatti.
Her grandfather was a passionate singer and he used to frequently sing kirtans, astajams (ashtakams) and bhajans.
Maithili used to listen to the songs of her grandfather and he taught her folk music of Maghi, Bhojpuri and Maithili.
At the age of 3, she started singing the traditional songs of Bihar like Samdaun, sohar, etc. along with her grandfather.
Moving to Delhi-
Her father shifted Maithili and his remaining family to Dwarka, Delhi and during that time, she was 7.
She used to attend the music classes of her father and started learning classical music and her father used to make her perform on the stages.
Maithili’s father also trained her brothers.
For many years, she studied from home-schooling and never attended a school because she was more focused on learning music than formal education.
Later, Maithili was joined directly into the sixth class in Bal Bhavan International School, Delhi.
Currently, she lives in Delhi.
Studious student-
Even though Maithili struggled to catch up in school for a year, she worked hard and from her seventh class onwards, she started securing very good marks.
Even though she was practising music, she was able to secure 94% in her 10th class.
While in her 12th class, Maithili participated in a reality show but even then, she managed to score a decent 85%.
Appreciated by principal-
Her school principal got very impressed by Maithili’s singing and he offered her many singing opportunities in various school events and also offered her free education.
This recognition inspired her and she started practising singing with even more dedication.
Also, her father used to emphasise music more than her education.
Maithili’s parents have always been very supportive to her.
Graduation-
In 2017, Maithili joined Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, University of Delhi to study Bachelor of Arts.
First reality show-
Maithili’s father learnt about the Little Champs (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs) reality show and applied for it on the behalf of her daughter.
In 2011, she attended auditions in Delhi and cleared them and during that time, she was 11 years old.
Then, Maithili travelled to Mumbai for the remaining auditions.
She cleared the two auditions but unfortunately, she couldn’t clear the final audition.
Maithili got rejected because she was able to sing only classical songs but not Bollywood songs.
Indian Idol Junior-
After practising for around four years, in 2015, Maithili participated in Indian Idol Junior 2 singing competition and stood second (runner-up).
She got very disappointed for not winning the competition.
So, Maithili decided to give up on music and solely focus on her education.
After passing tenth standard, she started preparing for the UPSC exam as she wanted to grow up to become an IAS officer.
But her father didn’t allow Maithili to give up on music and he inspired her to resume practising.
First win-
In 2016, Maithili participated in i-genius Young Singing Stars competition.
Here, she competed with singers from all across India and came first and this win boosted her confidence.
Rising Star-
In 2017, Maithili got invited to participate in the Rising Star singing competition.
As she was preparing for the Civil Services Exam, she was in the mood of rejecting their offer but as they offered her a direct entry, she agreed to participate in Rising Star.
Maithili was the runner up in this competition and this made her very popular.
Using social media-
As Maithili became famous with Rising Star, she decided to stay in the limelight with the help of social media.
So, she opened social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and started posting her photos onto them.
But initially, Maithili didn’t get a good response.
Then, she also started uploading the videos of Samdaun, sohar, batgavani, etc. on Facebook and Instagram but even then, she wasn’t getting decent views.
Prior to this, Maithili had started a YouTube channel by the name, Maithili Thakur on 11 January 2014 but she started working on it only from February 2018.
Becoming popular on social media-
Maithili started singing famous Bhojpuri songs and uploaded these videos onto social media and thanks to this, she started getting good views.
She also started producing songs by using harmonium and tabla along with her brothers and these songs too started getting popular.
Over time, Maithili uploaded traditional folk songs of many languages like Maithili, Magahi, Angika, Bajjika, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Rajasthani and Kesariya Balam, etc. on her YouTube channel.
She also posted a few Bollywood and English cover songs.
All these made Maithili very popular on social media.
A successful YouTuber-
Maithili is a very successful YouTuber and has more than 3 million subscribers on her Maithili Thakur YouTube channel.
She has more than 5 lakh subscribers on her Maithili’s Life YouTube channel and she also has another YouTube channel by the name, Maithili Epic.
Maithili’s father also runs a YouTube channel by the name, Ramesh Thakur.
Maithili’s brother, Ayachi Thakur runs a couple of YouTube channels namely, Ayachi Thakur and Ayachi Thakur Vlogs.
Rishav Thakur also has a YouTube channel by his name and has acquired more than 2 million subscribers on it.
He also has a gaming channel by the name, Rishav 2.O.
Awards and recognition-
Maithili has performed in more than a thousand shows in India and abroad and won many awards. Some of them are as follows-
- Rajiv Gandhi Global Excellence Award 2019.
- Mithila Ratna Award, etc.
- In 2019, Maithili along with her brothers were selected as the brand ambassadors of Madhubani district by the Election Commission.
- She was appreciated by Malini Awasthi. Malini Awasthi is a folk singer and a Padma Shri award recipient.
- Maithili was also appreciated by her role model, Shankar Mahadevan. He is a famous singer.
In August 2020, she also delivered a TEDx talk in Bankipur.
Maithili’s vision is to promote Indian music, especially folk music of Bihar.
She is a very talented singer and can sing folk songs, ghazals, classical music, Sufi and Bollywood songs.
So, how are you inspired by the success story of Maithili Thakur?
Share with me in the comment section below.
Featured image credit: Sachin Jha/Wikimedia Commons
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