"Every time I look in your eyes, I get so helplessly lost feeling so high" - Falling In Love

'Falling in Love' is the sexy upbeat summer hit that's been playing on radio stations across the country. It's a familiar tune, you've heard it before. You know the beat, you heard the voice but what you may not know is the women behind the single.

The R&B songstress is pure Canadian talent. She lives in the GTA where she was born and raised.

Surprisingly the self described pop culture junkie was not raised on blues, r &b or rock and roll. "I never listened to this stuff growing up. When I was young and people would talk about listening to Stevie Wonder and Donnie Hathaway I'd think, I never heard of these people before! … I grew up listening to bhangra and watching lot of Indian movies…"

Growing up her father was fairly strict, so broaching the idea of singing as a career (as opposed to a hobby) wasn't something he was necessarily always happy about. But Deesha has clearly chosen her path
"We still butt heads to this day…because my ideas of what I should be doing (with my life) are completely different from his." Because Deesha was always very studious her family regarded writing and singing as an obvious thing for her not to do.

"Music is such a huge part of my life that it's just become a part of me. I may never be a hugely successful recording artist but I'll die trying and have lots of fun doing it."

And she's not the attention seeking sort that some might consider a burgeoning talent in the public eye to be. She's spends a lot of time alone, sometimes days in her studio by herself. Since she began working on her album (not yet titled) Deesha's been really reclusive spending lots of time with her close friends and family.

Much like in her video for 'Falling In Love' where Deesha and her girls are cruising, chilling and hanging out in their neighbourhood enjoying a T.dot summer. She's a Toronto girl through and through. It's a flirtatious, spontaneous fun ride.

Deesha insists she's a writer first and a singer second. Her lyrics reflect her true personality and singing those lyrics was a natural progression of that. She can't imagine another artist singing her songs. They belong to her, it's personal but this is how she is able to share her thoughts with the rest of us.

And she's been in the Canadian entertainment game long enough to have learned lots of the rules the hard way. Contrary to popular belief it's not all about singing in the shower, taking a day off work and standing in line to audition in front of a panel for your big shot to make it as a superstar.

The reality for most independent musicians in Canada is a lot closer to living on next to no cash with a busted car scrambling to pay for mounting bills and more studio time.
"When you're independent and you've got your plan, something like not getting a VideoFact grant can be devastating. It's difficult to raise funds and whatnot. It's unfortunate what independent Canadian artists have to do. Our whole objective with putting the video out (Falling In Love) is that audiences know the name, the song, but they don't know the face…."

It's a guarantee that as we hear more from Deesha her fans will continue to fall in love with her again and again. And for those who haven't yet had the pleasure of falling in love… you don't know what you're missing.

See Deesha at the 2003 Masala!Mehndi!Masti! Festival, performing Saturday in the Brigantine Room: For more info visit www.mybindi.com/events/mmm/mmmcalendar2003.html

For more on Deesha check out www.deesha.com