Support our efforts, sign up to a full membership!
(Start for free)
Register or login with just your e-mail address
Pop / Rock 27/12/2007

Hot New Pop Star for America, Sexy Icon for Young India

Hot Songs Around The World

Water
Tyla
306 entries in 20 charts
Stick Season
Noah Kahan
313 entries in 19 charts
Houdini
Dua Lipa
285 entries in 26 charts
Strangers
Kenya Grace
442 entries in 24 charts
Lovin On Me
Jack Harlow
293 entries in 22 charts
Popular
Weeknd, Playboi Carti & Madonna
266 entries in 18 charts
Lose Control
Teddy Swims
316 entries in 25 charts
Beautiful Things
Benson Boone
159 entries in 24 charts
Si No Estas
Inigo Quintero
283 entries in 17 charts
Greedy
Tate McRae
621 entries in 28 charts
Unwritten
Natasha Bedingfield
291 entries in 22 charts
Anti-Hero
Taylor Swift
615 entries in 23 charts
Cruel Summer
Taylor Swift
572 entries in 20 charts
Snooze
SZA
223 entries in 13 charts
Mumbai, India (Top40 Charts/ Meetu Chilana Official Website) - The names of Indian cities such as Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi usually conjure images of clean-cut, chino-clad, young office workers. Step into an all-night cafe in one of India's new suburbs where Tom Friedman's so-called "zippies" hang out, and you will overhear conversations that will inevitably reveal one thing - in this vast and ancient country, the soul that sits behind every American-accented call center is as Indian as the Bollywood screensaver on every hi-tech worker's computer.

For all the hoopla in America about outsourcing services to India, India itself has been outsourcing a good measure of its entertainment services to America, much like the rest of the world. Yet, after decades of consuming, emulating and localizing American content, today's globalized urban Indians demonstrate an unshakable sense of identity. And it is in this context that American-born pop songstress Meetu Chilana makes a journey to the land of her ancestors to embrace all that her music embodies.

The recent iTunes release of her EP I am signifies the emergence of an ever-expanding area of intersection between American and Indian music markets, where boundaries between the two are not just blurred, they have virtually disappeared. The first thing that strikes you about this collection of songs is their eclectic quality. Then, as the voice starts to penetrate your senses, you realize that the experience of listening to Meetu Chilana's music is somewhat like a trans-continental flight - only in this one, you travel back and forth instantly and seamlessly.

The opening track Wake Up Stand Up speaks to the urban Indian hipster crowd, jumping effortlessly from one language to another - just like the zippies do themselves, whereas Come And Take It is an irresistible bhangra track that's already creating a flutter in the underground club circuit. However, it's the title track I Am that nails Meetu's perspective from the bridge between the two cultures she represents. Also included in the EP is Lost, the theme song for the upcoming movie Hiding Divya. Samrat Chakrabarti, producer and director of the song's award-winning music video and an accomplished musician-actor himself, is all praises for Meetu, especially her ability to effortlessly switch from one style of music to another.

Fred Croshal, former VP at Sony (one of the founders and creators of Celine Dion's career), who headed Maverick Records for Madonna, says about Meetu: "She is very cool!" It comes as no surprise then, that record companies in India are showing an active interest in wanting to develop her career in their region.

Meetu's music also seems to resonate with Bollywood. While Manisha Koirala and Lisa Ray give her a ringing endorsement, Darshan Zariwala (Om Shanti Om, Gandhi My Father) did an impromptu performance with her while in New York.

Meetu is fast rising in the ranks of other western musicians of Indian origin such as Talvin Singh, who says about her music: "I Iove the Hiding Divya song - it's so fresh and full of heart", and Rishi Rich: "I think Meetu is an extremely exciting artist and I'm looking forward to working with her". Meetu will feature on a new album from Indo-Canadian band Josh, who have worked with Nelly Furtado and Kanye West.

Ultimately, it's the fans whose enthusiasm and support is the real testament to Meetu's music. At a recent concert at Jacob Javits Center in New York, she put on a power-packed performance alongside Indian Idol 3 winner Prashant Tamang to thousands of ecstatic fans.

Meetu Chilana's journey to her parents' homeland will take her to a country that has been transformed since they left its shores. But when mp3 downloads of her music hit the zippy generation across India, outsourcing between India and America will have come full circle.






Most read news of the week


© 2001-2024
top40-charts.com (S4)
about | site map
contact | privacy
Page gen. in 0.0088999 secs // 4 () queries in 0.0044598579406738 secs