Teenasai, previously known as GrapeGuitarBox, is a non-binary trans, queer, indie singer-songwriter/producer based in London, UK (formerly based out of Bengaluru, India). They are also a founding member of Trans Voices, the UK’s first professional all trans vocal group. With their music, Teenasai wishes to create a space safe from labels, judgement, and discrimination; a space for all the misfits. Being multilingual, they love covering songs in different languages and want to create a multilingual collection of musical work someday.

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, etc. They’ve given 2 TEDx talks on non-binary identities. They’ve collaborated with Tinder for an original track called ‘free’ as a soundtrack to an animated queer short film and also produced a commissioned track for Dunzo India. They were also part of the IKEA Festival in 2021.

For their second single ‘Wait For You’, they crowdfunded and co-produced and conceptualised a queer (poc and wlw) video.

Through their music, Teenasai 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.