Friday, September 16, 2011

A R RAHMAN Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny)


Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny)

"Jai Ho" (Hindi:) (English: May there be victory) is a Hindi song composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Gulzar, for the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire. It accompanies a choreographed dance sequence at the end credits of the film. The song also features vocals by Mahalakshmi Iyer, Tanvi Shah, Vijay Prakash, and Sukhwinder Singh, who is the main vocalist.The song won an Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

A version featuring the Pussycat Dolls was released with English lyrics. "Jai Ho" topped the charts in five countries, while the English version performed by the Pussycat Dolls rose to #2 on the European Hot 100 Singles chart and #15 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

It was also the official campaign song of the Indian National Congress during the 2009 election.
After his Oscar win, A. R. Rahman revealed in an interview that it was Subhash Ghai who had asked him to use the words Jai Ho in a song. After its inclusion in Slumdog Millionaire, it was later nominated for best song at the 2008 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, the 2008 Satellite Awards and at the 2003 Houston Film Critics Society Awards. In 2009, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, beating out WALL-E's "Down to Earth" by Peter Gabriel, and "O…Saya", also of Slumdog Millionaire and by A. R. Rahman and M.I.A.

The lyrics are mostly in Hindi interspersed with some Spanish lyrics. According to Rahman, “Jai Ho,” or “Victory to You,” was meant to create “a vision of the whole world celebrating this victory”. Rahman, who performed "Jai Ho" live on The Oprah Winfrey Show on February 23, 2009 with the rest of the original performers, was asked by Winfrey what the song title means. Rahman stated "Jai Ho" means "May Victory be yours!".
Of the four singers credited, Sukhwinder Singh is the principal vocalist.Vijay Prakash sang the portion with the words "Jai Ho" that takes a high pitch at numerous junctures of the song.Mahalakshmi Iyer sang the Urdu words between the "Jai Ho" chants, as well as those portions of the verses not sung by Singh. Tanvi Shah sang the Spanish words.

In March 2009, Super Cassettes Industries (T-Series), the music company which holds the song's copyright only for India, received nearly $200,000 from the governing Indian National Congress party for its use in its national campaign in the May 13th 2009 Indian General Elections.This version features altered lyrics sung by Sukhwinder Singh, who performed on the original song. A new video was shot for this version. The song's writers, Gulzar and Rahman, publicly distanced themselves from the use of the song in the campaign, saying "'Jai Ho' belongs to everybody."

The original version also saw fame on the Billboard charts. It reached 8th position on the "Top Digital Tracks" chart of Billboard. The song has also won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media at the 52nd Grammy Awards in 2010.
The song was performed at many major events besides the concerts and musical shows. The song was performed by A. R. Rahman, the composer, at the end part of the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. It was performed by Ravi K Tripathi, a Lucknow based singer, at the closing ceremony of 16th Asian Games.Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)" is a song by American pop girl group the Pussycat Dolls from their second album, Doll Domination 2.0. Produced by Evan Bogart, Ester Dean, Ron Fair, Gulzar, E. Nuri, D. Quinones, A.R. Rahman, N. Scherzinger and Tanvi Shah. It was released as the third single in Europe (fourth in Oceania, United Kingdom and North America). The song is the English interpretation of the song "Jai Ho!". The English lyrics do not translate directly from the Hindi lyrics.
It was a considerable hit, reaching number one in Australia, Finland, Ireland, Lebanon and Turkey. It also reached the top three in Belgium, France, New Zealand and United Kingdom. In United States it peaked at number fifteen. The music video was shot in Vienna, Austria at a Tramway Museum, recreating the last scene from the movie Slumdog Millionaire . The English version of the song was sung by various voice actors of English children's shows during the 2009 Children in Need Promotional dance video. It was also sung in The Official BBC Children in Need Medley.
In 2009 Ron Fair and Jimmy Iovine wanted to make "Jai Ho!" a pop record keeping the original melody. After contacting A. R. Rahman, they asked Scherzinger, to re-write and make her own version of the song. On an interview in DesiHits, Nicole revealed that she didn't want to cover "Jai Ho" saying that, "[...] I was scared to death to touch it [and] afraid for people to hear it before I even wrote it." She later explained on MTV that,
"It's crazy how the whole thing came about, [...] I'm a writer, and I've been fortunate enough to write for the Dolls, but when they asked me to look at the movie and do my own version, I was really afraid to take on the task of rewriting the lyrics, [...] because I thought the movie was so profound, I didn't know how to make sure I kept the integrity of the movie and the love story, but also make it cool enough for the Pussycat Dolls and for people all over the world to connect to.

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