Dressed in a red-and-gold silk pavadai (skirt) and wielding an electric guitar, 10-year-old Maya Neelakantan stepped onto the stage at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles this past March.
The audience at the America’s Got Talent (AGT) audition, one of television’s most popular reality shows, was unsure of what to expect as she began with an intricate alaap in Natabhairavi, a grand devotional raga.
And then she unleashed her performance.
Maya seamlessly shifted to performing “Last Resort” by the American rap-rock band Papa Roach, a 2000 hit known for its intense and distorted guitar melodies. Her fusion of Carnatic, rock, and metal earned Maya a standing ovation from everyone in the room, including judges Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, Sofia Vergara, and Terry Crews. Cowell even called her a “Rock goddess”.
The telecast of her audition, which aired last weekend, went viral on social media, boosting the Chennai girl’s confidence to continue her genre-blending music. The YouTube video circulating on social media has garnered over 2.2 million views. Maya is now set to compete in the AGT semi-finals, where only 10 contestants advance to the final round.\
Look What Happened Today! Gary Holt of Slayer/Exodus gifted me his signature guitar!!! #garyholt #slayer #loudwire #exodus pic.twitter.com/pQ0tji5qHC
— Maya Neelakantan (@MayaNeelakantan) March 30, 2024
In 2024, Neelakantan captured the Internet’s attention with her AGT appearance. Sharing the video on X, industrialist Anand Mahindra wrote, “Oh My God. Maya Neelakantan is only 10 years old. 10! Yes, Simon, she’s a Rock Goddess. From the land of Goddesses. We have to get her back here to do her stuff at the @mahindrablues.”
Since the telecast, Maya, who has recently turned 11, has been eagerly googling her name and enjoying the attention at her family home in Chennai. “For me, as that standing ovation came in, I felt that same experience. I am excited about returning to the stage again whenever that happens next,” says an enthusiastic Maya in a conversation with The Indian Express over Zoom.
Sitting in her bedroom, in front of a shelf full of stuffed toys, she explains that the medley she performed on AGT represents the kind of music she wants “to create in the future”.
Born to a Tamil father who owns an IT company and an Australian mother who works in education, Maya grew up immersed in Carnatic music, which she learned from her grandmother, and rock and metal, which her father, Neelakantan, frequently played at home and in the car.
Oh My God
Maya Neelakantan is only 10 years old. 10!
Yes, Simon, she’s a Rock Goddess.
From the land of Goddesses.We have to get her back here to do her stuff at the @mahindrablues !@jaytweetshah @vgjairam pic.twitter.com/sRNHPBondg
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) June 29, 2024
“I heard Metallica when I was about five and loved how energetic it sounded. I was always jumping around the house when I heard it,” says Maya, who began learning guitar from her father at six and continued with YouTube guitar lessons.
At eight, she discovered the American prog rock band Tool, “which is a genre on its own”, says Maya. She also came across a video of “Guitar Prasanna”, a US-based IIT Chennai and Berklee graduate who is a pioneer in playing Carnatic music on the guitar. “I didn’t know you could play this music on a guitar. Before I discovered them, it felt like something was missing from my music,” says Maya, who has been taking online classes from Prasanna for the last two years.
However, what truly changed things for her was a cover of Tool’s “7empest” (pronounced Tempest). She recorded it in her room, sitting next to her Peppa Pig toy, and uploaded it on YouTube.
The video caught the attention of Tool guitarist Adam Jones, who reached out to Maya and gave her advice on improving her playing. Days later, he sent her a signed Gibson guitar—the same kind he plays, named after him.
“That was special. And that’s the guitar I played on America’s Got Talent. We’ve been in touch ever since and I am very proud to have a friend like him,” says Maya, who also impressed guitarist Gary Holt of the legendary thrash metal band Slayer. Holt recently gifted her a guitar and cheered for her at her Los Angeles audition alongside Prasanna.
Maya says that although she enjoys playing music by other artists, she is committed to rigorous training to develop her original music. “What I did on the show was kind of a small part of what I want to be doing in the future,” says Maya.