Type of site | Entertainment Portal |
---|---|
URL | www |
Launched | 2006–present |
DesiHits is a multi-platform media company that produces and distributes fusion entertainment content aimed at the South Asian diaspora. The Company was founded in 2006 by Anjula Acharia-Bath, Ranj Bath and Arun Sandhu, and is headquartered in New York. [1] Jimmy Iovine of Interscope Records and Israeli venture capitalist Aviv Nevo are strategic investors in the Company, and the Advisory Board includes former President of Epic Records Charlie Walk, Warner Music's Roger Gold, Tony Kanal of No Doubt, Ogilvy & Mather executive Doug Scott, record producer Steve Stoute, and Drew Lipscher, partner at Greycroft Partners. [2] Anita Chatterjee is the Company's Editor-in-Chief. [3] In January 2008, DesiHits raised a $5 million round of venture capital financing from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DE Shaw and Trident Capital. [4]
The Company's award-winning website DesiHits.in [5] [6] has grown to become a leading online destination for Desi-flavored celebrity interviews, music videos and radio podcasts, reeling in upwards of 10 million hits per month, and generating more traffic than long-established MTVIndia.com. [7] [8] In November 2008, DesiHits announced a partnership with Warner Music Group to develop and distribute original short form videos showcasing mainstream artists experiencing Desi culture through cuisine, fashion and Bollywood. [9] The Company inked a similar agreement with Sony BMG in February 2009. [10] Most recently, DesiHits helped facilitate the AR Rahman-Pussycat Dolls Bollywood remix collaboration of "Jai Ho". [11] The Company is credited with creating original content with the likes of AR Rahman, Sonu Niigaam, Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Bally Sagoo, Jazzy B, Jay Sean, The Pussycat Dolls, 50 Cent, Lady Gaga, Wyclef Jean, T.I., Sean Paul, Sean Kingston, and others.
Arista Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music Group, the North American division of German conglomerate Bertelsmann. Founded in November 1974 by Clive Davis and deactivated in 2011, Arista was re-established in 2018. Along with RCA Records, Columbia Records, and Epic Records, it is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels.
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist and philanthropist, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in international cinema. He is a winner of six National Film Awards, two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, fifteen Filmfare Awards and seventeen Filmfare Awards South. In 2010, the Indian government conferred him with the Padma Bhushan, the nation's third-highest civilian award.
Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) was a division of a German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on 1 October 2008.
Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout of the remaining 50% held by Bertelsmann. BMG was instead rebuilt as BMG Rights Management on the basis of 200 remaining artists.
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Sony Entertainment and managed by the American umbrella division of multinational conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of the Sony Music Group, with the other half being the publishing division, Sony Music Publishing.
Kamaljit Singh Jhooti, better known by the stage name Jay Sean, is a British singer and songwriter. He debuted in the UK's Asian Underground scene as a member of the Rishi Rich Project with "Dance with You", which reached No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart in 2003. This led to him being signed to Virgin Records and having two UK top 10 hits as a solo artist in 2004: "Eyes on You" at No. 6 and "Stolen" at No. 4. They were included in his critically acclaimed debut album Me Against Myself which, though only moderately successful in the UK, sold more than two million copies across Asia and remains his most successful album to date. Alongside the Rishi Rich Project, Sean was a pioneer of Bhangra-R&B fusion, which his debut album helped popularize among the worldwide South Asian diaspora.
"Don't Cha" is a song written by Busta Rhymes and CeeLo Green, and produced by the latter. The chorus is a slightly modified interpolation of the chorus line sung by Sir Mix-a-Lot in a song he wrote called "Swass" (1988). The song was originally recorded and published in 2004 by Tori Alamaze, former backing vocalist for the hip hop duo OutKast, and was released as her debut single. After minor success, and dissatisfaction with Universal Records, Alamaze gave up her rights to the song.
Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short, is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is operating independently from the United States-based Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry. Its subsidiaries include the Japanese animation production enterprise, Aniplex, which was established in September 1995 as a joint-venture between Sony Music Entertainment Japan and Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, but which in 2001 became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was prominent in the early to mid '90s producing and licensing music for animated series such as Roujin Z from acclaimed Japanese comic artist Katsuhiro Otomo and Capcom's Street Fighter animated series.
"Buttons" is a song recorded by American girl group the Pussycat Dolls from their debut studio album PCD (2005). It was written by Sean Garrett, Jamal Jones, Jason Perry and group member Nicole Scherzinger, and produced by the former two alongside Ron Fair. It is a hip hop-influenced pop and R&B track featuring synthesizers and a Middle Eastern rhythm, with the group pleading a reluctant man to help them undress whilst adopting a submissive stance. A remix version featuring American rapper Snoop Dogg was released as the album's fourth single on April 11, 2006, by A&M Records and Interscope Records.
Pussycat Dolls Present is an American reality television series that premiered on March 6, 2007 on The CW, and took place over the course of eight weeks. It was a joint venture between Ken Mok's 10 by 10 Entertainment, Pussycat LLC, Wonderland Sound and Vision, and Warner Horizon Television.
Diamond Duggal also known as DJ Swami is a British-Indian music producer, composer, musician and AI researcher. He has produced for a number of notable artists, including Shania Twain, Pras Michel, Apache Indian, Maxi Priest, Stereo Nation, Zoheb Hassan and Viktor Kiraly as well as remixing for artists including Erasure, the Beat and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He is an accomplished guitar player and multi-instrumentalist and toured as lead guitarist with Boyzone and Robbie Williams. Diamond is also co-founder of production duo Simon and Diamond with his brother Simon Duggal. As DJ Swami, he performs and records electronic, Indian Punjabi bhangra and South Asian music both as a solo artist and as band leader of UK electronic world music acts Swami and PunjabTronix. DJ Swami also tours and performs in collaboration with Deep Forest.
The Pussycat Dolls were an American girl group and dance ensemble, founded in Los Angeles, California, by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995 as a burlesque troupe. At the suggestion of Jimmy Iovine, Antin decided to take the burlesque troupe mainstream as a pop group. Antin negotiated a record deal with Interscope Geffen A&M Records in 2003 turning the group into a music franchise comprising Nicole Scherzinger, Carmit Bachar, Ashley Roberts, Jessica Sutta, Melody Thornton, and Kimberly Wyatt. Their debut single, "Sway", was featured on the soundtrack of the 2004 film Shall We Dance?.
A. R. Rahman made his debut in Indian Music Industry with the 1992 Tamil film Roja. In his three decade long career, he has composed and produced original scores and songs for more than 145 films in various languages, namely Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, English, Persian and Mandarin.
"Whatever U Like" is the debut solo single by American singer Nicole Scherzinger, featuring rapper T.I. and Sean Garrett. The trio, along with Polow da Don, composed the song for Scherzinger's planned debut studio album Her Name Is Nicole. "Whatever U Like" was released on July 28, 2007 on Interscope Records.
The Writing Camp is an American songwriting collective, founded by Evan "Kidd" Bogart and David "DQ" Quiñones. Since its formation in 2007, the team has been responsible for a series of successful releases in pop, R&B and dance music, including 2008's "Right Here (Departed)" by Brandy and Beyoncé's "Halo."
Slumdog Millionaire: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack album of the British drama film of the same name, directed by Danny Boyle. The original score and songs were composed by A. R. Rahman, who planned the score in two months and completed it in 20 days, a far shorter time period than usual.
"Jai Ho" is a song composed by A. R. Rahman for the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire. When Danny Boyle, the director of Slumdog Millionaire, approached Rahman to compose its soundtrack, he included the song. "Jai Ho" accompanies a choreographed dance sequence at the end credits of the film. Indian singer Tanvi Shah wrote and provided vocals for an English section of the song. "Jai Ho" is a phrase which can be roughly translated as "Let [the] victory prevail", "Let there be victory", or "May there always be victory".
"Jai Ho! " is a song by Indian composer A. R. Rahman and American girl group The Pussycat Dolls, recorded for the re-release of the group's second studio album Doll Domination (2008) and their EP Doll Domination – The Mini Collection (2009). It was released on February 23, 2009, by Interscope Records as the fourth single from the album and is an English remake of the original Hindi song "Jai Ho" which is taken from the soundtrack to the hit film Slumdog Millionaire (2008). The remake was conceived by record executives Jimmy Iovine and Ron Fair who tasked the Dolls' lead singer Nicole Scherzinger with creating a pop record that did not deviate from the original melody. Iovine and Fair also asked a number of other writers to create interpretations of the song, including Brick & Lace, The Writing Camp and Ester Dean. The final English version of "Jai Ho" was dubbed "Jai Ho! " and is sometimes also referred to as the "RF Mix" or "Ron Fair" Remix.
"Singappenney" (transl. Lioness) is a 2019 Indian Tamil language song composed and sung by A. R. Rahman, from the film Bigil. The song's lyrics were written by Vivek and featured additional vocals by Shashaa Tirupati. The song has a motivational theme for women, hailed as a women's anthem. The song was released as a first single track of the film on 23 July 2019. The song features Vijay including the 11 women football players. Rahman and Atlee Kumar has a special entrance in the film through this song.