Jyoti Magar

Early Life & Education

Jyoti Magar was born in a village in the Rolpa district of Nepal. However, her family migrated to Dang when she was still a toddler. In interviews, she has often said that as a young child she was more interested in dancing than in singing. She has also said that she comes from a family that deeply loved music, though not professionally involved in it.

Jyoti completed her School Leaving Certificate(SLC) from a school in Dang. Though she joined a college to study an Intermediate Degree in Arts (IA), she dropped out and decided, instead, to focus in music.

Music Career

Jyoti Magar signed up with a Kathmandu-based record company and recorded her first album in 2006. A music video was also produced, but the company later decided not to release the album, possibly due to risks involved in producing an album of a new singer en masse.

Magar’s second and third albums Maya Sanga (with love) and Ui Mulako Sinki Ui Mulako Chana became instant hits all over Nepal and among Nepali diaspora abroad. As of 2015, she has produced more than half a dozen albums, giving voice to nearly 30 Nepali folk songs. Jyoti Magar normally writes and composes her music herself. She also appears as a model in her music videos. Some of her famous songs include Piratima Dam Chha and Jimmal Bauki Chhori.

Apart from folk (lok dohori and teej songs) singing, Jyoti has also appeared in a Gurung-language film and has done radio dramas and street dramas in the past.

In an interview with the NepaliHeadlines, when asked if she had any suggestions to newcomers, Jyoti said that music is an worship to lord Saraswoti and it needs a lot of patience, practice and sincerity, and if you are entering the musical world just for name, fame and money, just don’t do that. When asked whether her glamour was appropriate in Nepali folk music, she responded saying that like curry needs salt; music needs glamour, and glamour not only in songs, but also in words, meaning and music.

In the same interview, she demanded that the government of Nepal should provide a different passport or at least an identity card to artists and celebrities to facilitate international and domestic travels.

Jyoti Magar has travelled in many countries of Asia, the Middle East and Europe to perform in musical stage programs mainly organized by non-resident Nepali organizations abroad.

Jyoti Magar & Controversies

A few television interviews that she appeared on were either censored and not broadcast at all due to her ‘inappropriate way of dressing’. Jyoti Magar’s interview conducted by Nepal Telivision Plus (NTV Plus) was never broadcast because the censor team found it apparently vulgar. Another interview for Himalayan Television was also censored due to dress issues.

Jyoti has slammed the claims that she dresses inappropriately and in a vulgar way. While questioning NTV’s decision not to broadcast her interview, she said to a Nepali online magazine, “showing little bit of cleavage is common even among those women who censored it, I was there in Nepali traditional dress, but it shouldn’t have been censored like that in any way”.  

In 2016, a video clip was spread on social media which showed that Jyoti was apparently drunk and was dancing in a very provocative way in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Personal Life

As of October 2016, Jyoti is single and when asked by JanaPukar, an online magazine, whether she was in a romantic relationship, she said that she’s in love with music. She has revealed that she does get plenty of love proposals which she can broadly categorize into two: from the ones who really like her emotionally, but also from the ones who are merely seeking physical pleasure from her.

Jyoti has one brother and one sister and while siblings are married, she lives with her parents.

She has said that her bad habit is that she is a bit lazy. When asked whether she had a favorite Nepali political leader, she said she liked Gagan Thapa because he’s handsome and has good views. When asked if sex before marriage was OK for her, she replied that if there is long commitment and if the person you are involved with is HIV negative, it should be OK.