- Title: INDIA: BALLY SAGOO TAKES HINDI-POP INTO MAINSTREAM MUSIC CHARTS AROUND THE WORLD
- Date: 22nd December 1995
- Summary: BALLY SAGOO SAYING " I'VE GOT A LOT OF BIG IDEAS, BIG PLANS FOR 97 AND HOPEFULLY I'LL UTILISE THEM .. I'M REALLY EXCITED, BUT I'M REALLY HAPPY THAT THINGS HAVE GONE FOR ME SO FAR. AND IT'S ALL DOWN TO ALL THE FANS BECAUSE THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS TO ME REALLY BECAUSE TO ME THEY'RE THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE YOU KNOW. IF THEY DON'T BUY MY MUSIC, THEN I'M NOT .. NOWHERE, BUT AS LONG AS THEY'RE THERE FOR ME, THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS AND I HOPE THAT I CARRY TO MUSIC RIGHT ACROSS THE BORDER."
- Embargoed: 6th January 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BOMBAY, INDIA
- Country: India
- Reuters ID: LVA2Z9RSBYM88708VGUTGWTTECYJ
- Story Text: A 32-year-old Asian musician from the British city of Birmingham is breaking down cultural barriers by taking Hindi-pop into mainstream music charts around the world.
Bally Sagoo's single 'Dil Cheez' recently reached number 12 on the British Top 40 pop charts as the United Kingdom's Asian population spends some of its growing wealth on modern, rather than traditional music.
Sagoo's career has also been boosted by a new 1.6 million U.S.
dollar contract with Sony to promote his music worldwide and an invitation to be the support act for Michael Jackson in Bombay in November.
Baljit (later shortened to Bally) Sagoo was born in Delhi, but has lived in Britain since he was six months old.
His motorcyle mechanic father founded the first Asian music group in 1967.
While his parents played traditional Hindi music, Bally would be mixing Hindi and western music tapes in his bedroom which he humorously named "Currywood Studios". At 14 he was mixing tapes for his friends. At 18 he was selling them for eight dollars each. He was also a popular party disc jockey in Birmingham.
A musician since he was 15, Bally Sagoo now specialises as an instrumentalist, composer and arranger of his special brand of Hindi-pop. Although he appears in his video clips, he has Asian musicians perform his songs very much in the mould of Sergio Mendes who had international success with the sound of Brazil in the 1960s and 70s.
Sagoo says he has struggled against racism to break through music's ethnic barriers .. with Indian traditionalists initially being just as resistant to his compositions as westerners.
Sagoo's harmonisation of Indian and Pakistani music with western influences has been so successful that he is in big demand from India's Bombay-based equivalent of Hollywood known as 'Bollywood' to write the scores for its movies.
He says his recent success in Britain will be a giant step in taking other Asian artists onto the global stage.
His albums were initially only sold in Indian and Pakistani shops, many of which do not send their sales figures to Britain's Chart Information Network.
The Sony contract has meant that 'Dil Cheez' and the album from which it was taken "Rising In The East" are being sold mainly through chart-return shops whose sales are proving that Sagoo's music has a huge following in the United Kingdom.
There is also a massive following on the sub-continent following Sagoo's exposure on MTV-Asia which featured his own show. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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