Jenna is a singer-songwriter from Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Holland). Her real name is Jennifer Bhagwandin. She is best known for her participation in Idols and The Voice of Holland (This was the very first series Worldwide). In 2016 JENNA won the Hindipop Music Award for 'Best Female Singer'.
Jenna is a singer-songwriter from Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Holland). Her real name is Jennifer Bhagwandin. She is best known for her participation in Idols and The Voice of Holland (This was the very first series Worldwide). In 2016 JENNA won the Hindipop Music Award for 'Best Female Singer'.
Born and raised in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Jenna began singing at an early age. Her parents were born and raised in Suriname (above Brazil) and her great grandparents migrated from India. So her original roots are Indian/Desi. Her father Frank was the lead singer of the popular Hindipop band ‘Shakti’ in the 70’s and 80’s. This was a family band made of the six Bhagwandin brothers. So she was always surrounded by music every day. When Jenna was a young girl her parents divorced and Jenna and her sister Anupa went to live with their mother Regina. Regina noticed that Jenna was always singing every minute of the day. She told Jenna’s father to take Jenna with him to singing classes and so at the age of 12 Jenna took her first singing lessons and that’s where everything began.
Influenced by idols such as Whitney Houston, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion, Jenna started to sing in English, Spanish, French and Dutch (her native language).
In 2008 she gained national fame by being a participant on the popular TV show ‘Dutch Idol’. She competed together with her sister Anupa, who is also a singer. They were chosen from 64.000 contestants to enter the competition. Jenna knocked over the judges by singing a rendition of Alanis Morissette’s ‘You oughtta know’, a rock song, which was an out of the box song for a Dutch Indian girl. This was already an indication of her unique allround fusion style that she started to develop.
In 2010 Jenna and her sister Anupa were contestants on ‘The Voice of Holland’ forming a duo. This was the very first season ever worldwide of this show. The show originated from Holland in 2010 so it’s was unique for Jenna and her sister to be part of a TV show that would turn out to be the biggest TV format ever broadcasting in over 150 countries. Jenna and Anupa were chosen from 7.500 (semi) professional singers to be on the Blind auditions.
In 2010 Jenna and her sister Anupa were contestants on ‘The Voice of Holland’ forming a duo. This was the very first season ever worldwide of this show. The show originated from Holland in 2010 so it’s was unique for Jenna and her sister to be part of a TV show that would turn out to be the biggest TV format ever broadcasting in over 150 countries. Jenna and Anupa were chosen from 7.500 (semi) professional singers to be on the Blind auditions.
After the The Voice of Holland Jenna and Anupa formed the duo ‘X-tatik’. They wrote their own songs in Dutch and English and released a couple of original songs such as ‘Soso lobi’, ‘Game on’ and ‘I love you’.
It was around 2014 when Jenna felt the desire to get to know more about her Indian ethnic background and she started to explore Hindi and Bollywood music. She started to sing songs in Hindi and Bhojpuri in the cover band ‘Next Time’ and released a couple of Hindi cover songs such as ‘Zara chehra to dikhao”, which gained over 500.000 views on Youtube.
Recently Jenna started to learn the Punjabi language to also sing in Punjabi. She performs a broad mix of music styles in English, Spanish, French, Hindi and Punjabi. The way she combines various music styles with the various languages is absolutely unique.
Jenna’s debut (original) Punjabi single ‘So Naive’ was released on February 14th, 2020 to an excellent response and great reviews. Jenna was instantly made “Voice of the week” on B4U Music which is no small achievement for an Asian female artist especially for one that is not from the UK. The song was produced by producer Jasz Gill. The song got much praise and recognition amongst radio stations such as the BBC.
She is also known to be a fashionista. Her passion for fashion led her to be portrayed in the exhibition ‘Jewelry; makers and wearers’ at the Museum of Ethnology. Where Jenna was displayed on a life size screen talking about her signature jewelry.
What makes Jenna unique is her allround style and fusion, she likes to mix up her Western European upbringing and Desi roots, East meets West, Hollywood meets Bollywood. You can see that back in her fashion style and in her music.
