Bollywood is a rage and as music has no boundaries, stars from abroad are uniting together with Indian singers to create magic. Here is a list of some of the collaborations that has mesmerized the audiences.
Sunidhi Chauhan with Enrique
Bollywood’s leading playback queen Sunidhi Chauhan has many chartbusters under her belt, but this special song she will cherish forever. For this song, Sunidhi collaborated with the Latino pop sensation Enrique Iglesias. ‘Heartbeat’ is a romantic ballad that displays various shades of love and relationships. Sunidhi croons the Hindi lyrics featured in the song.
The music video just like Enrique’s earlier music videos made mercury levels go up. The music video was released in mid-December 2010.
Kylie Minogue with A R Rahman and Sonu Nigam (Blue)
Blue, the 2009 bollywood movie saw Kylie Minogue not only singing but also shaking legs with Akshay Kumar. She confesses that she has fallen in love with India. Her love began when she watched Chandni Chowk To China and since then she was completely hooked to Akshay’s antics.
Working in Blue was an opportunity to meet up with Akshay. A.R. Rehaman does the music while Sonu Nigam sang the Hindi parts. The song, ‘Chiggy Wiggy’ featured Kylie with the whole cast of the blue. Kylie recorded her parts in her London studio, while Sonu Nigam recorded his in Mumbai.
A.R Rahman and Mick Jagger
In the year 2011, the legendary Rolling Stone singer Mick Jagger sang in Sanskrit. The credit goes to A.R. Rahman, who collaborated with the rocker for ‘Satyameva Jayathe’. This is the second single from the band ‘SuperHeavy’. The Oscar-winner, collaborated with former Rolling Stone’s front man and Dave Stewart, Joss Stone and Damian ‘Jr Gong’ Marley to form ‘SuperHeavy’. The first album is titled ‘Miracle Worker.’
Pussycat Dolls and A.R Rahman
The Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee got the world to stand up and say ‘Jai Ho’. The Pussycat Dolls remixed the hit track from Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, and the video was shot in a Vienna trainyard, alludes to the dance sequence in the film.
The original track features vocals by Mahalakshmi Iyer, Sukhwinder Singh and Tanvi Shah. The remixed version featuring the English verses the Dolls and released as “Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)” on February 24, 2009. The song climbed to the #15 on U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts.
Snoop Dog – Singh is King
The lyrics from the 2008 Bollywood action comedy film mentions Snoop Dogg as a representative for the Punjabi. Rap superstar Snoop Dogg was roped in to sing the title track “Singh is King”.The video, featured Akshay Kumar and was actually shot in Chicago.
In the video Snoop Dogg wears an Indian kurta in Maroon and pairs with beige pajama. To give Snoop Dogg the Punjabi look a diamond-studded turban was added. The video shows Snoop Dogg relaxing on a large armchair. He was also seen shaking a leg with Akshay Kumar. The song fuses hip hop and bhangra and went on to a great hit that year.
Akon – RaOne
Probably one of the biggest collaboration of the year 2011, Akon was seen singing in Hindi. The song “Chammak Challo” was composed by music duo Vishal-Shekhar and Akon. Vishal Dadlani and Niranjan Iyengar penned the lyrics. The multi-talented Hamsika Iyer, who sang both the Hindi and Tamil parts of the song, accompanied Akon in the song.
Tata Young – Dhoom 1
Amita Marie Young, the Thai singer made her entry into Bollywood with the Big name like Yash Raj Films. Her single from the 2004 hit movie Dhoom created waves in not only India but also countries like Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries.
The OST album sold over 800,000 units in India. She later embarked on her ‘Dhoom Dhoom’ tour. Young received the MTV Immies: Indian Music Excellence and other popular awards for the song.
Britney Spears and Sonu Nigam
The year 2011 saw some of the greatest collaborations in Bollywood and the biggest among them was the tie-up between Sonu Nigam and Britney Spears. Sonu collaborated with Britney Spears on the remix of her track, ‘I Wanna Go’.
Britney on her microblogging site said that she is extremely excited about having Sonu in her song and that his vocals would add much different feel to the song. This is by far the biggest ever collaboration between two singers of India and America. Sonu is said to have personally composed and written his bits in the song and Dj Lloyd worked on the grooves.
Ludacris and Akshay Kumar (Speedy Singh)
Akshay Kumar teamed up with American Grammy-award-winning rapper, Ludacris for ‘Speedy Singh. RDB is the composer for the song with Ludacris singing the rap portion. The music video for the song “Shera di kaum” features all the three stars: RDB, Akki and Ludacris.
