User:Diderot's dreams/Nisha Kataria

Nisha Kataria is a Canadian born, American pop singer born to Punjabi parents. Kataria describes her musical style as pop, with rock and R&B elements.

Background
Kataria began singing at the age of 3. She has sung the national anthem at many sporting events in her home town of Phoenix, Arizona, including for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Phoenix Suns professional sports teams.

In 2003, at the age of 17, she was discovered by Dieter Wiesner, manager of pop icon Michael Jackson, in the parking lot of the Arizona State fair. Nisha was invited to sing live for Jackson at his Neverland Valley ranch. Jackson was impressed by Kataria's voice describing it as "like an angel". He recorded a duet with her, which has not been published. She stayed at the ranch along with her mother for two months.

Career
Kataria opened for Westlife, an Irish pop band popular in Europe, on their 2006 England tour. She worked with producer Dieter Dierks to record several of the songs from the Westlife Concerts. Her first album, If You Want to be Mine, was published in 2005 but it was not a hit. In 2008, she published via the internet the single "Hero", a remake of a Mariah Carey song from the 1990s. Kataria's version of it had been the official song of the 2007 Coca-Cola Chistmas Tour. Kataria is managed by Wiesner.

Kataria performed at the UK Asian Music awards in March 2009.