An Interview with Jaz Dhami aka Jaz, renowned British Indian musician of High Heels Te Nache fame
By Staff Reporter, Brampton
Popular British-Indian musician, playback singer, music composer and music producer, Jaz Dhami aka Jaz, will be performing Live at the Vibrant Brampton festival, the largest South Asian Arts and Heritage festival in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), organized by ACISA and presented by TD Bank, on July 22-23, 2022 at Garden Square, 12 Main Street North, Brampton.
The artist is renowned for his popular albums Pieces Of Me, Ki & Ka, Sanam Re, Roj Miliye and Keep Moving. His Punjabi Number “Addi Uchi” with Yo Yo Honey Singh was a big hit and was later adopted in the film “Ki & Ka” starring Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor. The number was popularly known as “High Heels Te Nache.” He has won Punjabi Music Most Popular song of the year Award in 2013 and Punjabi Music Best Punjab Based Song in a Hindi Film Award in 2017.
In an interview with our staff reporter, the musician talks of his motivation, role models and a song he’s going to perform for the first time at the Vibrant Brampton festival on July 23.
Q. What inspires you?
I feel like there is inspiration all around me. From the different experiences, I go through, travelling and performing. Performing is definitely one of the biggest inspirations, I feel I can transform that energy into creating new music.
Q. What has been your biggest challenge?
There isn’t just one, I’ve experienced different challenges at various stages of my career, be it moving to India when I was 16 to learn Indian classical, or studying at Paul McCartney’s school of music to then living and working in India over the last few years. Each stage pushes you to grow and prepares you for the next challenge.
Q. Who is your role model in the field of music?
Sardool Sikandar and Mohammed Rafi are my biggest role models. They both had a unique ability to sing any song at any given time. That level of versatility isn’t very common, they were both so successful at it as well; you can see that from the catalogue of work they both did.
Q. You have so many songs to your credit. Which is your favourite song?
It’s hard to pick one, but if it was from any artist it would be from Sardool Sikandar’s catalogue, Nazran toh girgaye being my ultimate favourite.
Q. You have been the recipient of so many awards? What comes next?
There’s always new music being planned, some great collaborations too. I recently did a guest appearance in a Punjabi movie, got a little taste of that too. But my focus is music, I’ve got a banger of a song ready to release next, I’m going to perform that for the first time at Vibrant Brampton festival exclusively for the audience there.
Q. Have you achieved your dream?
I don’t think you’ll ever meet anyone who says they’ve achieved their dream. The dream would be to break down the barriers that South Asian artists and musicians are now collectively trying to do, and that is for our scene to be recognised as credible across the globe. I want to see a Punjabi song hit the mainstream world like Bach ke did, where the whole world plays our music.
Jaz Dhami will perform LIVE at the Vibrant Brampton festival on July 23. He is amongst at least 150 artists who will perform at the largest FREE South Asian Arts & Heritage festival in the GTA. For more information, visit www.vibrantbrampton.ca.
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