Krishna McKenzie is a British

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

agriculturalist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.) is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the Uni ...

celebrity chef A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in Books, printed publications. While telev ...

public speaker Public speaking, is the practice of delivering speeches to a live audience. Throughout history, public speaking has held significant cultural, religious, and political importance, emphasizing the necessity of effective rhetorical skills. It all ...

, and

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces or hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. It is common for people ...

who is known for his

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

accounts in which he speaks about the importance of organic farming,

permaculture Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using Systems theory, whole-systems thinking. It applies t ...

, and Tamil cooking. Fluent in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

, he lives in

Auroville Auroville (; City of Dawn French: Cité de l'aube) is an experimental township in Viluppuram district, mostly in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, with some parts in the Union Territory of Puducherry in India.

Puducherry Puducherry or Pondicherry may refer to: Places in India * Puducherry (union territory), formerly known as Pondicherry ** Puducherry (city), capital of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry district The Puducherry District, also know ...

, India, where he owns a

farm-to-table Farm-to-table (or farm-to-fork, and in some cases farm-to-school) is a social movement which promotes serving local food at restaurants and school cafeterias, preferably through direct acquisition from the producer (which might be a winery, brewe ...

cafe known as Solitude Farm. He made his television debut as a reality cooking show judge in ''

Samayal Express Samayal Express is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language cooking game show which airs on Zee Tamil that started airing 15 September 2024. The show is hosted by Ayesha Zeenath and judged by Seetha (episodes 1-5), Krishna McKenzie and Sujitha (episode ...

'', which airs on

Zee Tamil Zee Tamil is an Indian Tamil language pay television general entertainment channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. The channel started broadcasting on 2008 and is available internationally. The channel broadcasts from Guindy, Chennai, ...

Early life

Krishna McKenzie was born in the United Kingdom, where he studied at

Jiddu Krishnamurti Jiddu Krishnamurti ( ; 11 May 1895 – 17 February 1986) was an Indian Philosophy, philosopher, speaker, writer, and Spirituality, spiritual figure. Adopted by members of the Theosophy, Theosophical tradition as a child, he was raised to fill ...

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

Brockwood Park Brockwood Park is a country estate located in the civil parish of Bramdean and Hinton Ampner, in the Winchester district, in the county of Hampshire, England. Historically, it was situated in the now reformed parish of Bramdean. There is a Krish ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

. Inspired by the school's teachings, Mackenzie moved from the United Kingdom to

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, India in 1993. While living in Auroville, he quickly learned Tamil and imbibed in

Tamil culture Tamil culture refers to the culture of the Tamil people. The Tamils speak the Tamil language, one of the oldest languages in India with more than two thousand years of written history. Archaeological evidence from the Tamilakam region indicat ...

. He briefly went to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, where he met his girlfriend and also had the chance to listen to a lecture by

Masanobu Fukuoka was a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands. He was a proponent of no-till, herbicide and pesticide-free cultivation methods from which he created a particular method of agr ...

on natural farming. He opened Solitude Farm in 1996, using farming techniques by Fukuoka.

Artistry

Krishna founded the band Emergence for which he has been the

lead vocalist The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

and has released albums with songs in both English and Tamil. The band was founded in 2006 in Auroville. The band has released songs using jazz, acoustic rock, and

dappankuthu Dappankuthu (or simply Kuthu; ) is a folk dance and music genre, that is typically danced to the Gaana music genre or Kuthu Beats with an emphasis on percussion performed in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is one of several popular gen ...

. Emergence has performed at

Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

, Maximum India Festival in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and The Blue Frog in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

References

Living people Television personalities from Tamil Nadu British emigrants to India {{India-bio-stub