Mumbai: Give her a lullaby, a 70’s club number or a Carnatic track and her voice makes everything worth listening. Here’s a singer who enjoys singing as much as her listeners do. That is why CNN-IBN thinks Hamsika Iyer is the next big thing.

A familiar voice on the small screen but Hamsika’s versatile vocal chords may not make it easy for you to spot her always.

The singer has been struggling for a big break for the last seven years.

“I was actually seriously trying to get a break in playback but whenever I would go to any music composer then they would ask where I had sung and whom I had worked with. Though they would say you have a very nice voice and call me but that never happened. I started to look at commercials. And then it happened and it took off so well but somewhere in my heart I was missing not doing playback singing,” says Hamsika.

Born and brought up in Mumbai, Hamsika started learning Carnatic music from her father. Starting out as a child artiste, she went on to do lot of stage shows.

And moving from jingles, she did playback singing for the first time in Calcutta Mail. But it was in 2007 that she got her big break with Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Eklavya singing Chanda Re, Chanda Re.

“All my friends knew that I have sung the song and they really liked it. I was little skeptical whether it would, as I had not seen the promos. My friends saw the promos and they called up to say that it’s sounding very beautiful. My first question to them was did it suit vidya because for me that is more important. Playback singing is all about the voice and the person, they said you don’t have to worry. It is gelling so beautifully. When I saw it for the first time, I knew in my heart that people would like it,”

Her voice mesmerised many and also got the lullaby back in the films.

Her next song was in Sudhir Mishra's Khoya Khoya Chand - a club number with a dose of jazz. But after the film bombed, the song went unnoticed.

‘I wouldn’t say it was frustrating but sometimes you feel sad that a beautiful composition goes unnoticed. But what has happened in my case, the kind of feedback that I have got for Khoya Khoya Chand, is that whoever has bought the audio CD, they would call me to say that they are surprised to say that the song has really not got that much recognition but it is a beautiful song and am happy with that,” says Hamsika.

Success or failure, Hamsika believes that its important to enjoy whatever one is singing.

And this ever smiling singer who has recorded songs in almost a dozen other languages, will be next be heard in Shantanu Moitra and Shankar Ehsaan Loy's compositions soon.