Tesher on musicians getting better of each worlds: ‘If BTS can do it, there’s no purpose I or another South Asian artists can’t’

Canadian-Indian musician Tesher, finest identified for his singles “Old Town Road vs Ramta Jogi”, “Young Shahrukh” and “Jalebi Baby”, hopes his songs have a common enchantment and mirror each the cultures he grew up in. The rapper-singer, whose actual title is Hitesh Sharma, was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in Canada. His mother and father moved to Canada from Punjab.
Tesher calls himself “fully Canadian” however on the identical time, the musician is conscious and happy with his Indian heritage.
“I am fully Canadian. I was born in Canada. My parents are from India, we spoke Hindi, Punjabi, watched movies and attended Indian functions. But at the same time, I had a good grasp of Western society as well. You should embrace both cultures, you need to find your balance,” Tesher instructed PTI in an interview.
The 28-year-old actor mentioned since he comes from two totally different worlds, his music ought to cater to each.

“I am from two worlds, so it makes sense that I make music for both. I want to be able to go to India and maybe make a string of Bollywood songs. And then, go to America and make a song with like J Balvin or something,” Tesher added.
Gone are the times when artists had been searching for fame and recognition within the US as Tesher believes that musicians can get the perfect of each worlds — the West and their native nation.
“Anytime we had an Indian artist blow up in America, they usually had to fully go the Western route, but I think people’s tastes have evolved so that they don’t have to categorise it in the world of music anymore. I think a pop artist in America can be an artist that sings not only in Hindi, but Punjabi, English, Spanish and all different kinds of languages.”
Tesher gave the instance of BTS, the Ok-pop group that discovered a die-hard fan following within the US in addition to in different international locations with their music.

“If BTS can do it, there’s no reason that I or any other South Asian artists can’t do it. One can be successful both in our native diaspora as well as just America and the mainstream western world as well,” he added.
Having grown up listening to Indian and Western hip-hop music, Tesher counts A R Rahman, Kanye West, Blue Veins, Sukhwinder Singh, Sukshinder Shinda, Bally Sagoo and Himesh Reshammiya as his inspiration.
His declare to fame was his 2019 observe “Old Town Road vs Ramta Jogi” which went viral on TikTok in 2019, main listeners to find his earlier discography.

With “Old Town Road vs Ramta Jogi”, Tesher mashed Sukhwinder Singh’s observe “Ramta Jogi” from Taal soundtrack, which was composed by Rahman, with Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road”.
“”Old Town Road” has a cowboy western aesthetic and the closest factor that got here to my thoughts was that wandering spirit and ”Ramta Jogi’ has a little bit of mysticism to it. The theme labored for me,” he mentioned.
Tesher later churned two different hit tracks “Young Shahrukh”, which had a beat taken from “Bole Chudiyan”, a track from Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.
The track was the musician’s manner of revisiting his childhood Bollywood recollections.

“My childhood is 2000s Bollywood information. I assumed I would as nicely use ‘Bole Chudiya’ and I heard it at a celebration the weekend earlier than I made the track. So, I simply recorded the primary verse in a single evening and put it out onto my Instagram and it obtained a very good response.
“It was just to say, I feel like Shah Rukh Khan. It means I feel like the king of the world. Anybody who”s my age will know what that may entail. So, I used to be actually utilizing him as a metaphor to clarify that. Thankfully, individuals had been in a position to get the reference and perceive what I used to be making an attempt to say.”

“Jalebi Baby”, his newest track with American singer-songwriter Jason Derulo, is making waves on social media.
The track is the reprised Hollywood model of Bollywood’s well-liked merchandise quantity, “Jalebi Bai” from the 2011 movie Double Dhamaal.
Tesher mentioned he loves the Indian candy ”Jalebi” and that’s how he considered making a enjoyable track round it.
“The song is about ‘Jalebi’ so we had ‘Jalebi’ imagery in the music video. We just wanted it to be both reflective of not only Bollywood and my memories of watching Bollywood but also growing up in Canada, going to weddings and the kind of a mix between both these worlds,” he mentioned.

“I have grown up in a culture, where we have friends of different races and cultures come and join in and celebrate with us. That’s where Jason comes in and all his dancers and it ends up being this big cultural mosaic. So that’s really what we wanted to show and pursue,” he added.
Going ahead, Tesher mentioned he’s open to creating music for Bollywood films.
“As for collaborations in Bollywood and the Indian music industry, I would totally be open to it and there’s been a lot of love being shown. I really want to be an artist that can exist in both worlds,” he mentioned.