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If you&rsquo;re a celeb, chances are you&rsquo;re also a dog lover. That&rsquo;s just how these things work. Cocoa B is the love of Shannon K&rsquo;s life. &ldquo;The &lsquo;B&rsquo; stands for Bhattacharya, which is our last name,&rdquo; says the 19-year-old budding popstar with around 5 million followers across all socials. &ldquo;Cocoa&rsquo;s the most adorable pup ever. I got him as a gift from my mom on my 17th birthday and since then, he&rsquo;s been my everything. I love him so much,&rdquo; she adds. The pop pooch serves as her fluffy friend - and nap buddy - for life. Shannon knows the best part of having a pet is that you always have someone to cuddle up to as you sleep. Just in case you&rsquo;re wondering who exactly is Shannon, she&rsquo;s melody king Kumar Sanu&rsquo;s daughter who&rsquo;s following in her legendary father&rsquo;s footsteps. Born in India and bred in London (where she studied at the Royal College of Music) and now based in Los Angeles, she has already worked with a number of high-profile songwriters and producers. Shannon released her first song, Roll Back the Year when she was just 12. In 2018, she launched her debut album, How Long Is A Long Time, which was written and produced by Justin Bieber&rsquo;s frequent collaborator Jason &ldquo;Poo Bear&rdquo; Boyd. Her single, soulful number &ldquo;I Do&rdquo; is a hit with as many as 12 million views online! As for singing in Hindi, she made her Bollywood debut with Himesh Reshammiya&rsquo;s Happy Hardy And Heer. &ldquo;I never really got the opportunity to learn Hindi music or to speak a lot of Hindi, which is why my Hindi is not so good, but I&rsquo;m working on it,&rdquo; she says, adding, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to be closing any doors because I love Hindi music, I love Bollywood songs, which is why I&rsquo;ve been listening to more Bollywood music to try and get inspired by it, and music has no language, no religion, no gender &mdash; it&rsquo;s the purest thing ever.&rdquo; Shannon says, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been into English music, even growing up, my idols have been Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, so I always knew from day one that I wanted to be an international pop star. Plus, I feel that if I had tried to make it as a singer in India, I&rsquo;d have received a lot of judgment and criticism and would have always been compared with my dad.&rdquo; Here are excerpts from her interview with Buddy Life Magazine from Los Angeles:

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You are the famous Kumar Sanu&rsquo;s daughter but stayed away from Mumbai. Was a love for music fostered in your home as a child? 

Well, it was quite natural for me to get into music as I was always surrounded by music at home. I used to listen to dad&rsquo;s songs from the beginning. I remember going down to his recording sessions as a toddler and watching him record. Now music has become food for my soul and even if I don&rsquo;t sing professionally someday, music will be an essential part of my life.

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While your career today is no doubt on the rise, did you always have aspirations of being a singer? 

I never thought of becoming a singer as I had a speech defect. I used to lisp a lot. That&rsquo;s why for me to even speak fluently was a good achievement. But music had always been a part of my life since it was the source of therapy for me and I have always enjoyed listening to music whether it&rsquo;s Hindi songs or English or even foreign music.

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When did you decide to take singing as a career? What is it that drew it to you initially? 

I feel like as I started to get influenced by artists like Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Adele apart from dad, I took an initiative in learning music properly. So I got my music training from Music School, London. I even started writing songs following my younger sister Annabelle, who&rsquo;s an incredible songwriter.

You&rsquo;ve been busy making a life abroad. How&rsquo;s the experience so far? 

I believe that living in different corners of the world has definitely influenced my music. The environment and lifestyle has reflected in my songwriting many times. I like to see how different my songs are compared to each other because of the surroundings, or place I was at during that time. So it&rsquo;s always great to see how much of an impact can a certain place be on your music. For me, living in London and experiencing the lifestyle really influenced me as a songwriter.

Is Cocoa the first pet in your life or you&rsquo;ve had others before him? 

Cocoa is indeed my first pet who I looked after personally. We had a German Shepherd when I was a toddler and then later two more dogs at home. I remember not knowing anything about how to look after puppies when Cocoa came home as he was just six weeks old, quite fragile but I gradually got the hang of it. Now I can&rsquo;t imagine my life without him. He&rsquo;s my child more than a pet.

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How many canine companions do you have now? 

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Right now I just got Cocoa, but I&rsquo;m sure we&rsquo;ll need a little friend for Cocoa himself in the future. I always support animal equality and charities that look after animals.

Were you raised in a family of animal lovers? 

Absolutely! As I said earlier, dad had a German Shepherd and he was his best friend. My sister Annabelle and I love dogs and not just dogs, we love all the animals. In the future, I&rsquo;d love to own a farm where I would have horses, cows, rabbits, and of course a lot more dogs.

What is it that makes him special? 

Well, he&rsquo;s super smart and a quick learner. But what really makes him special is the fact that he was able to make my mom fall for him too! She has always had a fear of going too close to dogs even though we had dogs in the house. We had help at home to look after our dogs. When Cocoa had first arrived, she was a little hesitant to get close to him but Cocoa really put a spell on her and now I think she might love him more than my sis and I. Hahahahaha.

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Dogs take up a lot of time. Are you able to spend time with him? 

I try my best to give him as much of my time and attention as possible. It&rsquo;s always a bit tricky to leave him at home when I&rsquo;m going out for work or college as he starts to cry and doesn&rsquo;t let me go. But when I come back home, I&rsquo;m always showered with his love!! I remember I had to take him to the studio because he started crying a lot and he was sitting calm when I was recording! I don&rsquo;t have any domestic help, so it&rsquo;s either my mom or I need to look after him.

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Do you take him for walks or grooming frequently? 

I take Cocoa out for a walk every evening. He&rsquo;s a fast runner and it&rsquo;s adorable to watch him run as his ears flip back and he looks like a rabbit just jumping around. I take Cocoa to his vet for a regular checkup every month and make sure he&rsquo;s healthy. He gets groomed twice a month at the parlor and we clean his entire body every day with bath wipes and put a nice, clean T-shirt on. He&rsquo;s got a lot of T-shirts, so mom does his laundry twice a month. It&rsquo;s very important to wipe him each time after he tinkles or poops. He pees on his wee mat, he&rsquo;s a trained pup. I&rsquo;d like to request all the pet owners to please wipe them each time after they go to the loo, keeping them clean makes them live a healthier life.

What have you learned most about life from having him? 

One of the qualities that I&rsquo;ve developed because of Cocoa is, empathy. Cocoa made me a better person. It&rsquo;s insane how now that I have Cocoa, I go out of my way to make sure he&rsquo;s safe, healthy and I&rsquo;ve never cared about myself as much. I also think that one of the life lessons I&rsquo;ve learned is that all lives are the same, whether it&rsquo;s human or animal. Though we are all limited somehow, we all have emotions. Animals have emotions too and it&rsquo;s incredible seeing how they love you unconditionally when you show a little bit of care towards them.

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He must be an audience to your singing sessions at home. Is he musically inclined? 

Cocoa loves being surrounded by music. He certainly likes to hear Hindi songs too! Especially dad&rsquo;s and when dad&rsquo;s at home with us, or even if he calls us up then Cocoa instantly recognizes his voice. Whenever I&rsquo;m doing my vocal warm-ups, Cocoa lays on his bed and watches me. Cocoa is so cooperative, he knows when I&rsquo;m recording in the studio or has a self-tape audition or even an interview, he&rsquo;ll just sit beside me and be extremely quiet.

With your first Bollywood song Duggi hitting the top of the charts, what can your fans expect from you next? 

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Well, Duggi is special for me, however, I sang few other Bollywood songs (English part) as well, might be out this year or in 2022. I&rsquo;m looking forward to singing one Hindi song at least and I&rsquo;m very thankful to all the Indian fans for showing love, I won&rsquo;t let them down. I will work harder on my Hindi. It&rsquo;s my dream to sing one Hindi song as an indie single or a movie song.

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Do we see a duet with your furball in your future? 

I sure can see that happening in the future!

What was it like for you the first time you were driving in your car and one of your songs came on the radio? Can you describe that feeling for those of us who will never experience that? 

The first time I heard my song play on the radio, I couldn&rsquo;t believe it. I turned up the volume to make sure whether it was my voice. My family was with me and It was a memorable experience which I can never forget!

Are you also involved in animal welfare and charity? 

I&rsquo;m associated with a charity called Animal Equality where they help spread awareness about the cruelty of animals that sadly occur around the world. I believe all lives are the same and have the right to live without cruelty!
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SHANNON K'S COCOA FIX 

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