‘Jalebi Baby’ Hitmaker Tesher Was Told To ‘Become A Punjabi Singer To Make It Big,’ But Had Other Plans
09.05.2023 - 18:39
/ etcanada.com
Regina-born singer Tesher, of “Jalebi Baby” fame, is getting candid about Asian representation in music and the significance of social media in today’s age.
“Jalebi Baby” was originally a remix of Justin Bieber’s “Yummy” with Bollywood song “Jalebi Baby.” However, after its success on TikTok and Instagram, Tesher revised the piece by removing “Yummy” and adding extended original lyrics in Punjabi and English.
The song became a viral sensation, topping the Shazam charts in 25+ countries and amassing over 100 million combined global streams in a few months. In 2022, Tesher performed “Jalebi Baby” with Simu Liu at the Juno Awards. It was also featured in an episode of the Iman Vellani-led Disney+ series “Ms. Marvel.”
READ MORE: Simu Liu And Tesher Team Up For Special Performance At The 2022 Juno Awards
Speaking about his biggest takeaway from the phenomenal success of “Jalebi Baby,” Tesher said, “Be yourself and trust the process. I think that (Jalebi Baby) was a song that didn’t fit any traditional boxes.
“Everyone always told me that if you wanted to make it big as a person of color in the music industry, you had to become a Punjabi singer, which is certainly true if you look at who really made it. So everyone’s like, ‘The time for fusion music isn’t working.’ But then I looked at what was happening in the world, how K-Pop was rising to the top, and how Latin music was rising to the top. And I’m just like, that’s obviously not true because we can do something with the Indian sound as well.”
He adds, “I always loved mixing songs together through mash-ups earlier when I was producing. But as I started to make my own music, I wanted to put my voice into it. So, maybe it had some Punjabi lines, some Urdu lines, some