Meet MANISHA: Your Local Filipina-Desi Artist is Changing the Listening and Concert Experience For The Better

It doesn’t matter how big the venue is – MANISHA can turn a room full of strangers into a community. This year, she played for an audience of nearly 750 people while opening for Joy Crookes in Seattle in May. She also performed at much smaller venues like the Soundbite Lounge to celebrate AAPI month and connect with the Asian American community in Seattle. While every show is unique, each one promises a fun and interactive performance – all thanks to her infectious stage presence.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤMANISHA notes that while she’s been enjoying all kinds of performances, she’s found the ones like Soundbite to be especially rewarding because of their mission to bring Asian communities together. Not only have these shows been a meaningful way to connect with audiences that share similar experiences, but she’s also been able to meet and work alongside other Asian artists such as Tanisha Deka as part of an all-Indian show lineup at The Sunset Tavern.

As a biracial Filipino and Indian woman, MANISHA grew up in the Philippines, where she started making music when she was around six years old. She lived in Manila until she was 17 and noted that she often felt different than her peers, who were fully Filipino. While this used to bother her, as she grew older, she realized her diverse background was actually a strength and she found value in sharing and teaching others about both of her heritages.

‎‎‎“Bringing my Filipinisms and my Indianisms to the spaces that I’m in… I found it adds instead of taking away,” she explained. “It’s like my superpower.”

These spaces she mentions are almost always sonic, for MANISHA infuses her cultural identity and pride into her songwriting process. The versatility of her sound – a blend of jazz, pop, and R&B – mirrors her multicultural background.

“Similar to how I'm mixed-race, my music is also mixed-genre,” she said.

This experimental sound is highlighted in the R&B pop-rock mix “11:11,” and the jazz-pop track, “It Was Never Really Love” from her 2024 album Sweet Until The Aftertaste. Both of these songs were part of MANISHA’s set at The Crocodile when she opened for Joy. She credits her early exposure to jazz standards by Frank Sinatra and The Fitzgeralds, as well as pop artists like Taylor Swift, as her musical influences.

“It’ll always kind of have this jazz aspect to it just because of my innate sound,” she explained.

The layered sound of MANISHA’s songs complements the depth of their content. Her lyrics become a vessel to share her experiences as an immigrant and a woman of color with listeners. “What does it mean when you immigrate? What does it mean to be an immigrant? What does it mean when being an immigrant is actually not a big deal? What does it mean when it is?" she ponders in her unreleased song, “Citizen of the Outside.”

These questions challenged her by offering a departure from the familiar bounds of romantic love. Instead, MANISHA considered the sentiments of identity, pride, and self love to write one of her most vulnerable songs to date.

Even as she grapples with heavier topics, MANISHA takes a sensitive approach. She refuses to compromise her optimism, especially when performing.

One of her priorities at concerts is to incorporate a sing-along into her set.

“There really is something so powerful when you have a room full of people and you tell them, ‘Hey, I'm going to teach you a line, and you're going to sing it,” MANISHA said. “And it's going to be great … [That] joy and the groundingness of, ‘There's a stranger next to me. We don't know who this artist is, but suddenly she's going, ‘Oh, oh, oh, and we're all singing ‘Oh, oh, oh.’ And it feels like you're releasing something.”

This form of engagement removes the barrier between MANISHA and the crowd.

“When you're performing, there is this interesting dynamic between the artist and the audience… [with] the fact that artists are onstage, it's like they're on this elevated platform,” MANISHA said. “It's almost like there's artists and there's audience. But I think with me chatting with the audience, asking questions, having sing-alongs, noticing people, and making this experience hyperspecific to this crowd, it kind of brings us to similar playing fields.”

In a similar way, MANISHA wants her performances to be accessible and almost democratic when it comes to who she can reach.

“I want my music to speak across ages. [It should be] something that a seven-year-old could dance to… or someone who’s in their 50s or 70s,” she explained.‎‎‎‎

She hopes to write songs that transcend level of experience — whether that means a young person understands her message or an older person remembers their past because of it.

“Ultimately, everyone loves, everyone hurts, everyone dreams,” MANISHA said. “And so it's like, how do we create this throughline where, no matter what age you're at, you feel seen?”

So what’s next for MANISHA? In addition to continuing to perform around Seattle, she hopes to release a new project this summer with the first song being finished this July. She describes it as a body of work that is much more pop-leaning than past releases. Though the project will explore new sounds, each track will continue to spotlight the signature catchy instrumentals and interactive storytelling and voice that is present in all of MANISHA’s past performances and music.

- Emery Rea