Deva Premal

German-born singer and mantra-musician whose recordings of Sanskrit mantras — usually performed with her partner Miten — have sold millions of copies worldwide and made her one of the most widely-listened-to voices in contemporary devotional music. Born 1970 in Nuremberg, Deva Premal grew up in a household steeped in Eastern spirituality, with the Gayatri mantra sung over her cradle. She left for India at twenty, met Miten in 1990 at the Osho ashram in Pune, and the two have toured and recorded together since 1991. Her bestselling 1998 album The Essence brought the Gayatri mantra and the Moola mantra to a Western mass audience for the first time. Though primarily a sound carrier rather than a writer, Deva Premal teaches through interviews, retreats, and the liner notes of her albums about the inner technology of mantra — sound as a vehicle for meditation, devotion, and direct contact with the sacred.