Alex Bellos
AFTER indie rock comes Hindi pop. Bally Sagoo, who made history last week with the first Hindi language single in the United Kingdom Top 40, has been invited to meet the Indian president to be blessed for his success.
Sagoo, from Birmingham, but already a household name in the subcontinent, will meet Shankar Dayal Sharma in Delhi next week.
The 32-year-old record producer said yesterday: “He will be congratulating me for my work, for carrying the flag across and promoting the Asian music scene in England.”
Sagoo’s single Dil Cheez – a phrase from lyrics which mean: “I give you not only my heart but my whole life too” – entered the charts last week at number 12 and is currently at number 19, with sales of around 35 000.
Although Asian records often have a large market among British Asians, Dil Cheez is the first to have “crossed over” into the mainstream.
Part of the problem has been that in Asian communities music is often bought in cassettes from shops that are not registered with the Chart Information Network, which compiles the weekly charts. Sagoo has been helped by signing to the label Columbia, giving him nationwide distribution and marketing.
Sagoo was born in India and moved to Birmingham six months later. He has been involved in music for almost 20 years. His forthcoming album Rising From The East will be his eighth. “I’m Asian, loud and proud, but I’m also British. I hope to have captured all those influences in my music,” he said.
Raj Ghai, a British music journalist and producer, said Asian musicians had started to fuse Western sounds. Sagoo uses dance music styles, American R&B and soul grooves.
Since June this year two other bands singing in Asian languages have almost made the charts. Stereo Nation reached number 53 in August with a track in Punjabi and earlier this month Trickbaby, three Asian girls singing a cover version of a 1960s Asian film song, reached 47.