| Dr. Zeus | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Baljit Singh Padam |
| Born | 17 July 1976 |
| Origin | UK |
| Genres | Bhangra |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Labels | Envy Entertainment Ltd (UK) |
| Associated acts | DJ Stin, DJ Sanj, Shortie, G Sharmilla, Lehmber, Talweezy,Gunpreet,Manpreet Sandhu,General Levy,Fun*dmental,Yana Gupta |
| Website | http://www.envyentertainment.com |
Dr. Zeus is the stage name of Baljit Singh Padam, who is a Birmingham[1] based Music Producer.
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Zeus gained stardom in India in late 2003 with his hit song "Kangna". He has large fan bases in India, the United States, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other large Punjabi markets. His popularity broadened when he collaborated with South-Asian female trio, Rouge. Contrary to popular belief, even though he goes by the prefix "Dr." and contrary to the Indian stereotype, Dr. Zeus has not in fact gone to medical school.
Dr. Zeus began his career in 1999 where he was signed to the Envy music label based in Birmingham, UK where he produced Pure Garage - Sue My Ass by the Punjabi singer, Balwinder Singh Safri, from the band Safri Boyz. He had two popular songs on this album, which were "Sahiba Bani Prawa Di" and "Par Langa De Veh".
A year later, he went on to producing his second complete album Deathjamm 4.5. This album is a part of the series Deathjamm Collections from the early 90's. On the album he had a pure Panjabi great similar to Sabar Koti featuring on the main track "Sajno Belio".
He then released his debut solo album "The High Life" in 2001, on the Envy music label. This album featured the vocal talents of Amar Arshi singing "Gwandian Da Dhol", which was a hit but still did not put Zeus on the international scale until 2003.
Dr. Zeus then released Unda Da Influence in 2003. This album surprised the Bhangra industry as a whole. Unda Da Influence gave Zeus the international and UK boost to take Best Album of 2003 and Best Song of 2003 "Kangna".
Dr. Zeus then released his third album, The Original Edit in 2005 with Lehmber Hussainpuri singing all the vocals. This album had many hit songs such as Je Jatt Bigr Gaya, Sachiyan Suniyan Ni, and Putt Jattan Da. This album won Best Album of 2005 and the song Sachiyan Suniyan Ni won Best Song of 2005.
Dr. Zeus then released his remix album of all his greatest hits entitled The Street Remixes in 2006, which again did make heads turn and give Zeus more confidence and recognition.
Dr. Zeus came back with a bang in 2008 with an album named Back Unda Da Influence . In this album Zeus took a very different approach compared to Unda Da Influence and considers it a much more 'Desi' album. In Back Unda Da Influence Zeus used majority unknown artists and introduced another new phenomenon; G.Sharmilla; whom Zeus has high expectation of. Back Unda Da Influence received a massive reception and was nominated for Album of The Year 2008 but did not win. The song named Sat Sri Akaal hit No.1 on the BBC Asian Network Charts and was also nominated for Song of The Year 2008 but lost.
Dr. Zeus stated on a BBC Asian Network interview that Back Unda Da Influence was recorded exclusively at his own studio (BFK Studio). This will hopefully stop all the people claiming that they produced all of Zeus' music.
As his next project, Dr. Zeus produced G. Sharmilla's solo debut album Headline. The album was supposed to be released in December 2009, but was pushed back to February 2010, April 2010, then July 2010. In July 2011, information was released stating the album would release in August 2011 and would be renamed Zindabaad
Zeus shared his plans of launching three new albums."The first one will have some of Nusrats greatest songs reproduced - something that even Bally Sagoo tried a few years ago, but my album will have a hip-hop flavour and will feature new artistes along with Nusratsaab. Then, I'm also producing a folk album with G Sharmilla (of sat sri akal fame) and a bollywood pop album introducing a new singer, Kanika Kapoor," he says.
Zeus, who's yet to test Bollywood waters, also spoke about his disappointing brush with movies. "Vipul Shah wanted to include my song, Asi Haan Punjabi in Singh is Kinng. But Pritam, who composed other songs on the soundtrack, chose against. But I'll take on Bollywood very soon."
In January 2011, Manpreet Sandhu's album "The Spirit" was released with music by Dr. Zeus.