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| Yo Yo Honey Singh: A music star's Journey from Success to Obscurity now echoes back |
Yo Yo Honey Singh. This name belongs to the singer who shone like the sun on the horizon of music but was later eclipsed for years. But now this 'indigenous artist' is ready to spread his brilliance once again.
If you're a rap music fan, it's almost impossible not to have Honey Singh's lyrics on your playlist. It will also come as a surprise to you that during the last few years neither Honey Singh has released any hit songs nor has he been seen in public.
Rather, during this time, only negative news about them kept coming to light. But now Honey Singh is making a comeback and he has named his comeback as 'Honey Singh 3.0'.
Naindeep Rakshit spoke exclusively to Honey Singh for the BBC and asked him many questions about his entry into the music industry, his battle with illness, his personal life, and his return to the world of music.
Honey Singh has told in many of his old interviews that he was fond of music since childhood.
"I was interested in music since childhood," says Honey Singh. At the age of 13, I used to play tabla during my school prayers. After that, the tabla stopped, but there was a good musical atmosphere in the house.
'From 1999 I started listening to hip-hop. Also listened to AR Rahman a lot. Then I had an idea to do something similar, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I made beats for underground rappers in 2003. In 2005 I got the opportunity to compose a song for the first time with Ashok Masti and I composed the song 'Khadke Glassi Tere Naal' which was a super hit but even then I had no work.
He said that after that in 2007 I moved to Punjab as a music director, before that I didn't know how to write, I only knew how to make music. Then slowly started writing, slowly started rapping. Started designing the album.
Honey Singh says that he started acting at a young age and his work was successful within a few years he became a star in Punjab. But in Delhi, Mumbai, and the big cities, he had no special recognition.
After that, Honey Singh decided to launch himself and started working on himself.
He says: 'After working on myself, I launched my first song 'Brown Ring' and 'Dakan Chal Padi'. Then more than one superhit song came and went.
How the star of fate shone
About the challenges in the early days of his career, Honey Singh says that he wanted to 'try something new' but people were not trusting him and supporting him to do something new.
In this context, Honey narrated an incident related to Diljit Dosanjh and said that even Diljit did not trust him.
He says: “Diljit approached me in 2009 for his album. He signed me as a music producer.
Honey Singh explains: 'During a conversation with Diljit, I asked him if he would continue to do what he has been doing or want to do something next level. Diljit also agreed to work on Next Level and named the album the same. From 2009 to 2010, the album design was worked on and featured a hip-hop song called Pinga - 'Panga' later became a big hit but Diljit was not ready to release it at the time of the album's release.
How did you get the name 'Yu Yu'?
About the story of his name, Honey explains: 'Honey is my nickname, and 'Singh' is my surname. Earlier, the back of the album had a small picture of the music director and his name on it. After five years of giving music and I got the award for best music director in Punjab, I felt that now I should do my own packaging.
He says: 'After that, the name 'Yu-Yu' was added. Yo-yo was slang for 'your own'. They used to call me like that and that's how I got this name.
Honey Singh 3.0
Honey Singh is calling his comeback 3.0.
He considers the journey from 'Kharge Glasi' to 'Desi Kalakar' as his first stop.
After that, he succeeded in maintaining his personal identity despite giving super hit songs in Bollywood, followed by illness and complete disintegration, which he describes as the second phase and now he is calling his comeback the third phase.
"In bad times, your people stood by you"
Honey Singh remained anonymous for almost five years. But the best thing for him was that his near and dear ones never left him.
He says: 'My fans stood by me for seven years, they inspired me and that's probably why Honey Singh 3.0 came up.'
Honey Singh says: 'When I made songs like Doop, Shoop, people in Punjab burned my skin, but I didn't pay attention to anyone. Because people loved and there were only a handful of people who did that. It didn't matter to me. If I was addicted to drugs, how did I get such loving fans in the form of relationships.'
Shahrukh's tour after which everything changed
Honey Singh explains that he was on a world tour with Shah Rukh Khan when he first fell ill.
He says that at that time we were doing a show in America. I was performing on stage. But my condition deteriorated to such an extent that I had to leave the ongoing show. Apart from this, a reality show was running on Star Plus, which was discontinued. At that point, I crashed. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder with psychotic symptoms. It wasn't just a case of depression or anxiety, it was much more than that."
'It was a terrible mental health issue that shook me badly. I told my family that it will not work now, to take me home. I was bound by the agreement, the family said that the case will be done but I said whoever has to do what he has to do, I just want to go home.
Something happened during this tour when Honey Singh was on stage. He also performed a song but stopped in the middle of the second song. He was no longer able to sing, then Farah Khan, Abhishek, and Deepika Padukone came dancing from backstage and carried him off the stage as if it was a part of him.
About his illness, Honey says, "This illness was so great that it took me five years to heal myself."
About this visit, Honey says that when Shah Rukh Khan came to know about her ill health, he spoke to her and asked her to leave after understanding the situation.
Telling about the days of illness, Honey says, "For the five years I was sick, I did not touch the mobile phone for five years." But during that time I spoke to Akshay Kumar twice, and Deepika Padukone advised me about doctors.
"People spread all kinds of things about me but no one knew the truth," says Honey Singh.
Documentary on Netflix
"People were constantly asking me where I was for the past seven years, but I only told my fans that I was sick," says Honey Singh.
A documentary on Honey Singh's life is also being made for Netflix.
Honey talks in detail about those seven years of darkness in this documentary.
He says: 'Now when I look at people, I think it is becoming a problem for many people, but families are shy to talk about it. I was at the stage where people go crazy and roam the streets. I was like that. For a year and a half, I lived like a madman. My case had deteriorated to such an extent.
However, Honey considers herself very lucky to have a family that didn't leave her in the middle and supported her every step of the way. Cared for them and helped them try to get back on their feet.