Teenager Shakila Karim who raised funds for Grenfell Tower families and for victims of the Nepal earthquake with her own benefit concerts is launching a singing career with her first EP record.
The 19-year-old former Bethnal Green schoolgirl, now a student at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, releases ‘The Mask is Always On’, co-produced with fellow student Milxnake.
The pair have become good friends and are now working on Shakila’s first EP being released online on August 20.
“I’m on a journey of discovery,” she admits. “It’s only now that I’m developing a clear artistic vision.”
Shakila K, as she calls herself, staged a gig in Spitalfields at the Canvas community café off Brick Lane in 2015 as part of her fundraising “marathon of 26 gigs” for the victims of the Nepal earthquake.
“The news on Marathon Day that year was full of the terrible earthquake,” Shakila recalls. “I’m no marathon runner, but thought at least I could perform a ‘gigathon’ to help raise funds.”
Shakila was brought up in Whitechapel and went to Bethnal Green’s Gatehouse Primary before the family—originally from Bangladesh—moved to Hertfordshire.
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