Developing Sohini
Introduction
In this portfolio, I aim to present an artist analysis and development plan for the emerging artist, Sohini Kaur professionally known as ‘Sohini’. I believe she possesses strong abilities and presence in the space of young artists looking to sustain a long term career in the music industry. Sohini has been selected for analysis due to her strong foundations and potential within the pop and R&B market. Her work proposes a distinct approach to the act of genre blending as she mixes Western mainstream pop and R&B with elements of her Indian heritage that result in a unique and cultural identity. Being in this positioning intensifies her overall market appeal in an industry that is currently valuing what is later described as “transcultural hybridity” (Born and Hesmondhalgh, 2000).
Her potential is supported by the early indicators of development she currently displays in her branding, live performance experience and the early artist identity she has formed that can further lead her in the right direction. After an overview of what led her into taking the path of music, the influences of Sohini’s identity will be discussed along with outlining her market appeal and accessing her current original material in order to justify the feasibility of a long term development plan for Sohini to follow. I will then lay out a realistic development plan for Sohini, factoring in what is needed to sustain her career in the long term and the steps needed to be taken, before finally reflecting on any potential weaknesses the plan may consist of and outlining how I would chose to overcome these challenges.
Artist Overview
Sohini Kaur (Sohini) is a 19 year old singer with a deep passion for music, particularly R&B and Pop, yet remains closely connected to her Indian roots. Drawing inspiration from old-school artists, she blends her influences to create a vocal style that feels both nostalgic and contemporary. Sohini’s artistic identity was influenced by early exposure to music in childhood within her household, where her mother, a musician and Indian classical music teacher, regularly invited students to rehearse and perform songs from the living room. Sohini was then surrounded in a live and cultural musical atmosphere. This reflects what Green (2002, p. 5), describes as ‘informal music learning practices’ in which musicians develop and absorb musical skills through the encouragement of ‘family and peers’, and ‘watching and imitating’ musicians around them. The same can be said for Sohini, where immersion in her mother’s musical world through these ‘informal’ practices led her to develop a love for music from an early age. By her early teens, music had started to develop into an increasingly more meaningful thing and a channel for exploring her emotions as she entered a vulnerable period of her life, which she describes as a ‘personal crisis’ (Sohini Kaur, 2025).
One of her earliest public performances was her cover of ‘When You Believe’, by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey performed at a primary school talent show. This choice of repertoire was a signal of the beginning of the vocal identity she has today as she leaned into the influences of powerful female pop artists of the 1990s and 2000s. Carey and Houston now serve as two of Sohini’s primary vocal inspirations, evident across all the music she performs and creates. Along with this, from her Indian heritage, she now introduces South Asian influences into her music by using various vibrato and microtones typically featured in Indian classical music to create a fusion of Western mainstream pop/R&B with South Asian classical and Bollywood performance aesthetics.
Today, her aspirations for music stand strongly prevalent as Sohini is in her second year at Leeds Conservatoire, a University dedicated to music studies. She is currently studying Pop music and fronts a five-piece band, remaining under the name ‘Sohini’. Sohini’s performances in Leeds, most notably her most recent headlining gig at ‘The Lending Room’, Leeds (21st November, 2025), are a highlighting example of the artistic potential she already displays, portraying her relevance to R&B and pop through her vocal abilities and aesthetic. Currently, Sohini and her band are working on releasing her first single, alongside crafting a music video to be released in early 2026, to provide audiences with what she has to offer and further state her identity as an artist.
Rationale For Selecting Sohini
Sohini occupies a unique and growing space of popularity in the music scene. When attending her most recent gig in Leeds (The Lending Room headlining gig), she began her set with an array of Indian-influenced vocals as an entrance to her set list. This was an intriguing and skilful display to listen to and see the emotional depth it added to her performance. Due to her background, Sohini has learnt the practice of Indian vocal training, a technique that ‘The Furtados School of Music’ (2025) describes in a blog as a technique that emphasises breath control, voice modulation and allows singers to “master their emotions”. This type of training is not only for classical Indian vocalists, but is said to “benefit all vocalists “due to it strengthening the vocal cords, enhancing breath support and increasing the overall range of the singer. As a result, Sohini’s grounding in these techniques provides her with a level of control that can strongly support her performance within R&B and pop by adding emotional depth and cultural aspects to her music. To further conclude, her combination of western mainstream genres tied with her cultural additions, reflects a hybrid musical identity that aligns with what Born and Hesmondhalgh describe in their book ‘Western Music and Its Others’ (2000, pp. 305-320) as a ‘transcultural hybridity’, where the mixing of musical traditions across cultures creates a new form of music. This music then resonates with a wider and more diverse audience. Therefore, this unique blend of styles makes Sohini a strong candidate for artist development, with the industry now thriving on these kinds of stylistic crossings.
Since beginning her studies at Leeds Conservatoire, Sohini has grown her social media following on Instagram from 200 to almost 1000 followers, alongside contributing uploads of performance-based content across platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Research suggests that using online platforms can serve as a successful way to communicate your artist identity and engage an audience, as “each platform offers multiple modes of interacting,” making it a solid approach to growing an audience as an emerging artist (Baym, Playing To The Crowd, 2018, p. 156). With the preparation of Sohini’s debut single and music video release, her understanding of contemporary release strategies like using social media platforms demonstrates her ability to create a forward momentum in audience engagement.
From a professional development standpoint, Sohini can be classed as being at an optimal stage for artist development. She stands at a point where she is still an early emerging artist whose artistic identity can still be further shaped, yet is experienced enough to have begun establishing her repertoire. In an article by the Music Managers Forum (MMF), it is emphasised that, typically, in today’s “digitally-driven climate”, labels tend to expect their artists to already have some sense of “development” and “genuine momentum” to be seen as ideal for a record deal (MMF, 2019, p. 8). In Sohini’s case, there is already a display of technical skills, aesthetic identity and a measurable audience growth that justifies her selection as an artist who would be capable of successful development. I believe that with the addition of a long-term strategy plan to pair alongside this, Sohini will show an even stronger commercial potential and be provided with the ability to advance further in the industry.
Overall Market Appeal
In an interview I held with Sohini, she identified Lana Del Rey as an influence on the visual and atmospheric aspects of her identity, particularly in relation to performance mood and her overall theme. While this influence may not be immediately evident through Sohini’s vocals alone, which tend to lean more heavily toward the 90s and 2000s R&B and pop ballad traditions, it becomes apparent when looking at her live performances and artist branding. Lana Del Rey is widely recognised for her romantic and cinematic aesthetic, often using symbolic imagery such as roses, deep red tones and themes of love, longing and emotional vulnerability. Similar visual strategies appear in Sohini’s branding, including the consistent use of red colour palette, rose imagery and the choice of wearing a red dress in performances to further implement this theme and imagery.
In branding, it can be said that colour plays an important part in shaping an artist’s identity and how audiences emotionally perceive them. Owsinski (2019) advises artists to ‘pick a colour as the first step to discovering their brand’, explaining that different colours can communicate different emotional undertones. He describes red as a colour associated with passion, love, desire and a high visual impact to audiences, making it a relevant choice for Sohini, given her passion for writing romantic love songs and bringing these textures into her work. By consistently integrating this colour into her physical branding, Sohini aligns her lyrical expression with her visual identity, strengthening her audience engagement and supporting her potential for growth as an emerging artist.
Beyond Sohini’s visual branding, her market appeal is further strengthened by her genre-blending approach incorporating pop, R&B and elements of Indian classical music into her live sets, her covers and eventually her original material. Genre blending has increased in popularity as artists are pushing boundaries and mixing their influences from various musical backgrounds, leading to rigid genre divisions “breaking down” and emerging new hybrid styles (Samplesound, 2025). Research examines the new generation of music listeners and labels them as “borderless listeners” who engage more with music beyond cultural boundaries. As a result, Sohini’s engagement in genre blending positions her well given the current music landscape.
According to a report by the Music Business Association (2018, p. 8), pop music is most commonly consumed by listeners aged 16-24, with female audiences showing particularly higher engagement (p. 7). Sohini’s music focuses on young love, romance and typically feminine themes within pop and R&B, directly reflecting the emotional and social experiences that female listeners aged 16-24 are reported to engage with more. As a young female artist operating within a genre that is popular among this age demographic, Sohini is positioned well to attract and retain this type of audience, proving a great marketing appeal in popular music.
Sohini’s live performance experience further implements her marketing appeal. She regularly performs in small to mid-sized venues across Leeds, which has led her to gain a local audience presence and gain some practical experience. In an article from Medium (2019), it touches on the importance of artists starting from smaller and local venues, claiming these spaces to be ‘a great place to collect new fans’ and can bring you closer to new artists both ‘physically and soulfully’. As Sohini has already begun performing at small local venues, this proves relevant as it demonstrates she has the ability and access to build connections with an audience that can lead her to develop a fan base and increase in the long term of her career.
The Foundations of Sohini’s Sound
Currently, Sohini and her band are developing their debut single ‘Makin Me’, alongside a professionally produced music video, both scheduled for release in early 2026. Although limited in the quantity of original material as of now, this release serves as the beginning steps to what will eventually become a catalogue of new material that will soon develop her to be an artist with a strong potential. The song depicts Sohini’s navigation through love and relationships by exploring themes of attraction and emotional vulnerability that portray the feeling of losing self control and becoming “lost in the fantasy” of romantic pursuit.
‘Makin Me’ sits within the pop and R&B genres and draws in styles from the 1990s R&B pop-ballad traditions that focus on love and its challenges; a topic heavily covered in traditional R&B with examples like ‘Visions of love’ by Mariah Carey and ‘My Love Is Your Love’, by Whitney Houston (Soul In Stereo, 2014). Sohini’s song is heavily vocal-driven with the arrangement set to put forth Sohini’s voice through the use of gritty textures, belting, pentatonic riffs and mixed voice, all various vocal techniques relevant within R&B and pop (TakeNote, 2022). By successfully drawing on established R&B and pop vocal traditions, Sohini’s single demonstrates authenticity within the genres and an ability to incorporate established stylistic conventions into her own work.
The demo also aligns closely with Sohini’s visual branding and identity. Its lyrical focus on romance, temptation and intimacy mirrors her red colour palette, rose imagery and feminine approach in her overall style. In an article by Musician’s Institute (MI, 2025), the relevance of an artist’s visual branding when put alongside their music is important and when effectively executed, the visual branding can help complement the music by conveying the song’s message, values and emotions. This relationship between sound and image is evident when putting her branding alongside her upcoming debut single where she successfully embodies her identity as an artist in both departments.
The Plan
For this project, my aim is to support the early stages of Sohini’s development as an artist in the pop and R&B market while including her interest in genre blending. This plan focuses on strengthening points of her existing artist identity and supports her creative performance and expanding marketing strategies to increase audience reach. This will be developed all while keeping her progression sustainable and measurable within the level she currently stands at, to ensure long term career growth.
Firstly, with the upcoming release of Sohini’s debut single and music video in early 2026, I believe it serves as a big point of focus for her official identity as an artist being brought to the surface. As there is currently no promotion for this across her social platforms, increased marketing is necessary. Due to Instagram being where her primary platform, I believe uploading promotional ‘single-release’ content here would be a good place to start. This can be things such as, announcing this in her artist bio and consistently posting about it on both her feed posts and story uploads to help maximise visibility and audience engagement around the release.
In addition to Instagram, TikTok has become a highly used industry tool for artist discovery. Ole Obermann, Global Head of Music at TikTok, states that the platform enables stronger artist to audience connections than the traditional streaming services (Music Business Worldwide, 2021). With this in mind, supporting Sohini with regular TikTok content would help show her authenticity as an artist, proving an effective plan to help her reach relevant audiences and strengthen her online presence.
Moving on from digital content, I would focus on improving Sohini’s live performance profile. Although she regularly performs in small venues in Leeds, I would first support her by targeting the most popular venues across Leeds for emerging artists. ‘Creativetourist.com’ (Horkan, 2025) claims ‘Brudenell Social Club’, ‘Belgrave Music Hall’ and ‘The Wardrobe’ to be among the best venues “in the north”. I would start Sohini’s journey by performing at top-rated local venues to gain further local recognition. From this foundation, her live presence could gradually expand to other well known music cities, beginning with Manchester and later London.
James Young (Liveunion, 2024) reports that Manchester’s smaller venues are accessible and effective for artists on a smaller budget and by getting Sohini added to the roster in popular spots like ‘Lions Den’, ‘YES’ and ‘The Peer Hotel’ would act as a great way of progressing her recognition further. In London, Ottewill (ICMP, 2024) identifies ‘The 100 Club’ as an iconic spot in London for gigs as it hosts almost every possible style of music, making it a feasible approach to promoting Sohini and her pop/R&B sound mixed with her unique Indian classical additions, as the venue holds no musical preferences. After this, finding venues in London that have a “soft spot” for R&B and pop would be effective and when looking at ‘The Jazz Cafe’ in Camden Town, it sets itself to be “especially good” for watching R&B singers and bands (LSA, 2023).
Finally, moving forward I would support Sohini with the development of a structured release strategy that prioritises gradual single releases rather than an immediate album. I believe an album release in the early stages of her development could potentially overwhelm a young demographic of listeners, who now engage mostly in short form content and hold shorter attention spans than the older demographics (IAB UK, 2020). With Sohini’s age demographic ranging between the younger ages of 16-24, this would allow her to keep her audience interested as there would be the steady releasing of singles alongside intriguing promotional content that would work to steadily build a portfolio of original material. As well as this, it would end up gradually providing Sohini with a setlist full of her own original material, effectively developing her as an artist in the long term as she steers away from covers and shifts to performing only her own repertoire.
Throughout this process, Sohini’s current branding would be maintained. This is because her romantic visual identity, with her red colour palette and emphasis on love and femininity, already provides a strong and effective self image for her target audience. Aligning the future single releases with this established branding would help to claim her identity further, leading to a stronger audience recognition and a greater chance of long term growth when remaining consistent with her branding across her music and live presences.
Weaknesses & Overcoming the Challenges
A particular weakness within the development plan is the reliance of a continuous single release strategy and how it may prove challenging. This would be due to the creative demand it would place on Sohini and her band to write and produce new music to release, rather than it being part of an album. To overcome this, I would encourage Sohini to work ahead of release schedules by potentially writing and creating demos for each track in advance, essentially like putting together an album, however when officially mastered and ready, these songs would then be released as singles, one by one. This would then allow time in between each release to put effort into the promotional side, boosting the quality of each release and overall reducing the pressure.
Another weakness could lie in the professional support structures surrounding Sohini’s career. She currently manages multiple areas of her development including her branding, applying for festivals, organising and booking gigs and creating new promotional content. While this could demonstrate her strong independence and abilities, it doesn’t prove to be a good route for long term development as she is presented the risk of “burnout”, potentially becoming disorganised. To counteract this, a dedicated band manager would be need to be introduced, along with personal admin to help with creating content schedules, gig planning, applications and release timelines for Sohini. This would effectively give Sohini more time to focus on her song writing and development as an artist. ICMP (2023) describes band managers as the “heroes” behind “successful artists”, meaning having one would put Sohini in a better position by setting a stronger system in place for long term career growth.
Although Sohini is active and engaging on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, her posting does not tend to be structured around important factors other than her live performance dates and band rehearsals. This leaves an empty space in her online image that could be filled with promotional content, announcements for her newest debut release as well as professional pictures or short form content that can capture Sohini’s branding and concepts. To overcome this, I would have to implement a clearer content strategy for her social media platforms, where it is ensured that all new releases and gig dates are paired with branding and visuals that go alongside them in a though out pattern. MI (2025) claim that when using social media for branding and attraction, a “well-curated Instagram feed” can significantly boost an artists presence. With this in mind, I would need to pay more attention to creating a satisfying social media page for Sohini that fans and first time viewers of the page can see.
Conclusion
In an A&R approach, this portfolio has gathered an analysis and strategic development plan for the emerging pop and R&B artist Sohini. Her background, influences, market positioning and upcoming original material have been studied to announce her potential as an artist working towards a long term career in music. The analysis of Sohini’s branding alongside her debut single release and ongoing experience in the live sector aids in gaining her further and deeper recognition for her identity as it proves she is already beginning to resonate with her targeted demographic. The proposed development plan has been made to build on these factors, creating a plan consisting of strategies within reach such as rearranging her social media with more relevant content and imagery and making a start on creating new music for future releases. Alongside this are goals that can be successfully obtained in the long term through realistic approaches like gradually bringing her out of her local scene and into other musically well known cities like Manchester and London and building her repertoire up to a point where she performs only her own material. Any weaknesses within the plan such as Sohini’s potential for burnout without the presence of a manager or the feasibility in the plan of releasing multiple singles have counteracting solutions put in place to keep her development worthy of long term success. Overall, I determine Sohini to be a strong case for professional long term development; her market positioning and early momentum in the industry evidencing this and placing her effectively within current industry expectations. This concludes Sohini to be a promising artist for a plan of sustained growth under an A&R perspective.
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