Meet The First All Girls Indian Music Band Ladybirds From The 70s

We all loved listening to Backstreet Boys, Bombay Vikings and Euphoria but it is also refreshing to have girl bands like Viva and Ladybirds as well. While boy-bands have been dominating the music industry for most of the time in history, there also have been girl-band who made a niche for themselves.

Not many people are aware of the fact that Ladybirds was the first all girls Indian music band instead of Viva. The band rose to fame in India during the 70s. It was started by Farida Vakila during her school years at St Joseph Convent in Bandra. Ladybirds consisted of four members, namely, Farida Vakil, Merlyn, Zarina and Jenny.

The group was managed by Vakil's father as he found gigs and contracts for the group. Farida Vakil was the lead guitarist and vocalist in the band, Merlyn was a drummer while Zarina was the rhythm player and Jenny played the bass.

"One day during lunch break we tried out harmonies and found that we hit it off beautifully. So the girl who played the drums bought herself a drum set. She became a drummer. Her name was Merlyn. Then there was Jenny, who played the bass. I played the lead. And there was Zarina, another classmate of ours, who played rhythm. And we became The Ladybirds," Vakil told Vogue in her interview.

Vakil said in one of her interviews that she had been exposed to international music at the young age by her older sister this developed her interest in music. Her older sister worked in an airlines and often used to get music records on her way back home for her. "My sister worked in the airlines. she used to bring back a lot of records, jazz, Latin American, Spanish, tango, flamenco," she added.

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Ladybirds eventually split up for various reasons after which Vakil joined The Riots Squad, a beat music group and remained a part of it till 1973. The band was also featured in a docuseries Standing By which covered history of International music in India.