Manooghi Hi is a Seattle-based rock band formed in 2007 and featuring

Indian pop Indian pop music, also known as I-pop or Indi-pop, refers to pop music produced in India that is independent from filmi soundtracks for Indian cinema. Indian pop is closely linked to Bollywood, Tollywood, Pollywood, Kollywood and the Asian ...

singer, Mehnaz Hoosein. Their music is a blend of western

rock-n-roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African American music such as jazz, rhythm and ...

harmony and instrumentation with Indian melody and rhythms. The band sings in a variety of

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

n languages, including English, Sanskrit, Hindi, and Bengali. Manooghi Hi released their debut album ''Hi'' in 2009Manooghi Hi (2009). "Manooghi Hi". cdbaby.com. Retrieved March 12, 2013
/ref> and their second release "Silence" in 2011.Brian McKinnon (July 11, 2011). Muzikreviews.com, Manooghi Hi. Silence. Retrieved March 12, 2013
/ref> They have performed at festivals including Seattle's

Bumbershoot Bumbershoot is an annual international music and arts festival held in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. One of North America's largest such festivals, it takes place every Labor Day (United States), Labor Day weekend (leading up to and ...

Arts Festival, Austin's

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

music conference, the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

in Park City Utah,

Oregon Country Fair The Oregon Country Fair (OCF) is a nonprofit organization and an annual three-day art and music fair held outside the city limits of Veneta, Oregon, United States. Located in the Willamette Valley, the site is about west of Eugene along the L ...

in Eugene Oregon, Salem Oregon's "World Music Festival" and Darrington, Washington's Summer Meltdown. Manooghi Hi has been featured on KING TV Channel 5's "Northwest Evening Magazine", KCPQ Q13's "Morning Show", Seattle Channel's "Art Zone", KZOK radio's "The Bob Rivers Show",

KEXP KEXP-FM (90.3 FM broadcasting, FM) is a non-commercial Radio broadcasting, radio station in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, United States, specializing in indie music programmed by its disc jockeys. KEXP's studios are located at the Seattle Cent ...

's local music spotlight "Audioasis" and KEXP's online feature "Song of the Day".Jason Kinnard (February 2, 2010). Song of the Day. Manooghi Hi Kismet. kexp.org. Retrieved March 18, 2013
/ref> Manooghi Hi has played concerts for Seattle City Hall and in Northwest rock clubs including repeat performances at

The Triple Door The Triple Door is a dinner theater, lounge and music venue founded in the fall of 2003, located at 216 Union Street in Seattle, Washington. The building often hosts concerts for folk, indie, and World music groups. The Triple Door is also not ...

Crocodile Cafe The Crocodile (formerly the Crocodile Cafe, and sometimes called The Croc) is a music club at 2505 1st Avenue at Wall Street in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. Opened by Stephanie Dorgan as the "Crocodile Ca ...

, Neumo's and

Chop Suey Chop suey (usually pronounced ) is a dish from American Chinese cuisine and other forms of overseas Chinese cuisine, generally consisting of meat (usually chicken, pork, beef, shrimp or fish) and eggs, cooked quickly with vegetables such as bea ...

in Seattle. The band has also been featured in publications such as ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

''.Nicole Dastur (April 30, 2009). "From Banoongi Main, to Manooghi Hi!". The Times of India. Retrieved March 12, 2013
/ref> and ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...

''. After watching their performance at the "SXSW" music conference in Austin in March 2009, Jonathan Zwickel of ''The Seattle Times'' wrote 'The cross-pollination is dizzying — East and West, ancient and modern, pop and classical, ecstatic spiritualism and headbanging rock.' Manooghi Hi. Retrieved March 18, 2013
/ref>

Personnel

Current members

*Mehnaz Hoosein - lead vocals *Ava Chakravarti - vocals *Todd Fogelsonger - guitar *Jimmy Thomas - bass *John Hollis - drums *Kent Halverson - keyboards

Past members

* Mark Nichols

Discography

Albums

*''Hi'' (2009) Manooghi Hi Records *''Silence'' (2011) Mowlawner RecordsManooghi Hi Silence (2011). Mowlawner Music. cdbaby.com. Retrieved March 18, 2013
/ref>

References

Musical groups from Seattle