Tasfia Fatima Tashfee is a Bangladeshi songwriter, a singer who has been carving a name for herself in the music industry since she has started. Munia Iffat catches Tashfee up with her journey, mental health, feminism, and more.

“My singing journey has not started as the other artists. Frankly speaking, I have been started my journey very abruptly. Before a singer, I was a good listener. Back in 2011 or 2012, one of my friends suggested me be part of their choir team, At that time I also was going through some mental breakdown so I myself gave it a chance. During my audition, there, Xefar was also present and  I have sung Beyonce’s one of the songs. That is how actually my journey has started. After a month I had a live program on Desh TV channel, it was my debut show actually.” When we ask Tashfee about her family’s supports towards the music journey, she revealed that

“At the beginning, my family has fully supported me but at a time when it passed my mother wasn’t totally okay with it. While in my case music is the only thing that heals me up, so my mother has to consider it. Without music, I can’t think myself…”

“Mental health” is an incredible thing to talk about in our daily life. Mental health is as important as physical take care is necessary for our daily life. As an artist, I feel that art is the thing that makes you happy sometimes, sometimes it makes you sad. This is the core meaning of art, right? We all artists are dependent on mental health. One thing is happy to hear that now as an interviewer, you are asking me about it. If we go through ten years back, no one actually cared about mental health but now time is changing. People like you ask us about mental health, they talk about it, which feeling makes us happy as it is a topic that everyone should talk about.

More or less everyone has some special memories in their career, but one of the memory I can’t resist myself to share here. In 2019, I performed at Ghost Festival, Singapore for the first time as an international artist. That was not only mine; even there it was the first time any international artist was performing. It was huge to me. Another memorable thing is after my performance at Gala night while I have wrapped up the show I waited outside, then one person came and showed his gratitude as he was a Bengali lighter there. He said it was his first time to see a Bengali artist’s performance there. That happiness in his eyes really made my show more memorable, and wholesome as well.

When we talk about feminism, Tashfee shared, “if we look at the principles of feminism, then everyone should be a feminist. We, women, want to live good, happy lives just like men do. It is very inspiring for me to see how empowered some women are. It inspires and amazes me to see just how much women are doing nowadays. A lot of the time things are not easy for women, but there are so many women breaking down barriers. At the end of the day, I am a feminist.”