Teenasai Balamu (@grapeguitarbox) is an indie musician based in London, UK (formerly based out of Bengaluru, South India). They perform under the stage name GrapeGuitarBox. What started out as a simple cover series on YouTube, has built a reputation for putting an interesting twist on popular music. With their music, Teenasai wishes to create a space safe from labels, judgement, and discrimination; a space for all the misfits. As a queer person, Balamu says “I wanted to make queer music videos. And I wanted brown people in it. Growing up, I didn't find queer people who looked like me and often felt isolated. I believe that visibility is super important.”
Most recently, they've been releasing singles off their debut EP 'Out', that musically illustrates stories of heartbreak, toxic relationships, hope, queerness, and the uncertainty of death, all tied together with the overarching concept of love. They've been picked up by Spotify Editorial Playlists over 5 times, and have been featured in multiple media outlets like Rolling Stone, BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Asian Network, The Hindu, Deccan Herald, etc. More recently they also gave a TEDx talk on non-binary identities.
For their second single 'Wait For You', they crowdfunded and co-produced and conceptualised a queer (poc and wlw) video that has been featured on this post as well.
Through their music, they want to start a conversation on queerness, mental health, being a person of colour, and the important role visibility plays in the career of a queer artist, and how it can make a huge difference to someone who is closeted.
All our events are free to attend; but you can support our work and the musicians with a donation:
https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=4HXTXDX4YB3BG
Most recently, they've been releasing singles off their debut EP 'Out', that musically illustrates stories of heartbreak, toxic relationships, hope, queerness, and the uncertainty of death, all tied together with the overarching concept of love. They've been picked up by Spotify Editorial Playlists over 5 times, and have been featured in multiple media outlets like Rolling Stone, BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Asian Network, The Hindu, Deccan Herald, etc. More recently they also gave a TEDx talk on non-binary identities.
For their second single 'Wait For You', they crowdfunded and co-produced and conceptualised a queer (poc and wlw) video that has been featured on this post as well.
Through their music, they want to start a conversation on queerness, mental health, being a person of colour, and the important role visibility plays in the career of a queer artist, and how it can make a huge difference to someone who is closeted.
All our events are free to attend; but you can support our work and the musicians with a donation:
https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=4HXTXDX4YB3BG
Category
🎥
Short film