New Delhi: Popular music artistes like Yo Yo Honey Singh, Badshah and Guru Randhawa are using their star power to help budding singers climb the ladder of success, and fans are impressed.
In July, young singer Armaan Malik lauded the senior artistes who were lending support to new music.
“It’s heartening to see established artistes sharing other artistes’ songs! The only ones I know who always make sure that they support new music are @Its_Badshah (Badshah) @raftaarmusic (Raftaar) and @GuruOfficial (Guru Randhawa),” Armaan had said on social media.
Joining the list is rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh, who recently launched a new singer Ipsitaa in his single titled “First kiss”. He said “it felt good to launch a new talent”.
“She is hardworking and talented. Basically, my research team does a lot of research on new artistes, so my team had shown videos of Ipsitaa a while ago. She had done cover of English songs. Later when we met, I noticed that she is a trained western classical singer,” Honey Singh told IANS.
For this song, he chose to pen the lyrics from a girl’s perspective.
“Since I was launching a girl, I wanted the concept to be different and new,” he said.
Naturally, Ipsitaa is grateful to have the star help her out. “I had an awesome time working with Yo Yo. From the vocal recording sessions, to learning a new dance form, to the video shoot — every step of the journey was a lot of fun! I consider myself very lucky to begin my music career with such a legendary artiste,” she said.
Another new artiste who has all the reasons to rejoice is Reet Talwar. She got to sing with rapper Badshah on “Awaara”, which got over eight million views on YouTube since its release on November 20.
“As someone who has been just recently introduced in the Indian music scene, I am grateful to have encouragement from an artiste like Badshah, who has a sound understanding of what listeners enjoy. I always wanted to share my interpretation of music and I’m glad that Badshah’s team thought I had something novel to bring to the table,” Reet told IANS.
On how she was spotted, she shared: “I had posted an unplugged rendition of ‘Tareefan’ on my Instagram page that Badshah came across. We connected on social media and he told me he wanted to mentor me and introduce me officially, and ‘Awaara’ happened. There are a couple of more tracks we are working on together. I am really looking forward to this journey ahead.”
Badshah feels that music is an indication of where we are as a society and it would be a great loss if the “voices of the current generation go unheard”.
“Every budding artiste brings something that is unique to the music they make and to know whether that is capable of striking a chord, we must take the leap and offer new people a space they can make their own,” Badshah told IANS.
“I am proud and lucky to be in a position to be able to offer a platform to these very talented artistes such as Aastha (Gill) and Reet and I intend to continue giving back to the music scene by mentoring deserving acts,” he added.
A few months ago, Guru Randhawa lent support to a relatively new Punjabi singer Barbie Maan by writing the lyrics of her song “Teri gali”.
“I feel real talent needs our and audience’s support. When she will become a superstar in coming years, you all can say you all have made her,” said Guru.
Rapper Raftaar too, is one of the stars who often takes to social media to promote another artiste’s music. A few weeks ago, he had unveiled a song by a pair of rising music artistes. Titled “Kehendi si”, the song was by budding singers Rish and Raga.
The rapper had also backed upcoming music artiste Yunan, who is supported by Raftaar through his Kalamkaar label.
“Yunan’s trajectory as an artiste has beautifully evolved since our initial days of spending time together in the studio. It’s such a gratifying feeling to watch a talent you have nurtured from scratch to grow by leaps and bounds. He’s the next kid on the block to watch out for in the pop music space,” Raftaar had said in August during release of Yunan’s song “Saath”
Music labels also have a role in such collaborations and giving a push to new talent.
“The music industry is at the cusp of change and the non-film category is slowly but surely building into a formidable category of music in India. We have endeavoured to showcase the best talent and content. In the music business, content is always the king, viability and economics will follow irrespective of a new or established artiste,” Vinit Thakkar, COO of Universal Music India, told IANS.
