Arjun (singer)

Arjun Coomaraswamy அர்ஜூன் குமாரசுவாமி
Background information
Birth name	Arjun Coomaraswamy
Born	(1990 -09-23) 23 September 1990 Sri Lanka
Genres	R&B, Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, producer, instrumentalist, actor
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Drum, Flute
Years active	2011 – present
Associated acts	The Blaze Brothers, Anirudh Ravichander, Charles Bosco, Sourav Ray (Master-B), S.Dubey (Justin Blaze).
Website	www.arjunofficial.com

Arjun Coomaraswamy, known by his stage name Arjun, is a British singer-songwriter, record producer and actor born in Colombo, Sri Lanka.^[1] He is a multi-instrumentalist, and plays the guitar, piano, bass, drums and flute, in addition to singing and beat-boxing. He gained fame through his online musical performances. He is signed with T-Series.^[2] He is currently the most viewed UK Asian artist on YouTube, with over 250 million views.^[3] He has a strong social media presence with over 1,500,000 Facebook fans,^[4] 291,000 Instagram followers,^[5] and 81,000 Twitter followers.^[6] He has performed on every continent.^[7]

Career

Arjun Coomaraswamy studied Architecture.^[2] He rose to attention by following an R&B cover version of "Why This Kolaveri Di"^[8][9] which was uploaded on YouTube in December 2011 has received 12.8 million views.

Arjun became known for his fusion of contemporary Western and Eastern sounds, combining R&B with elements of South Asian music. This formula has made him a big hit with Asian youth across the globe ^[10]

Arjun was nominated for ‘Best Newcomer‘ at the ‘Brit Asia Music Awards 2011’.^[11] In December 2011, Arjun’s R&B Remix ("How could you do this to me?") of the Tamil cult hit ‘Why This Kolaveri Di’ attracted over 3 million YouTube views in one month ^[12] and now stands at nearly 13 million views.^[13] The song became a viral sensation and was later featured on TV channels around the world, including CNN, NDTV and Star News.^[12] A few months later, two of Arjun’s singles made it into the first ever ‘Asian Beats Chart’ on mainstream UK television, selected by a panel of Asian media figures and TV officials.^[14] His song ‘Stargazer’ was voted the number 2 song by an Asian artist in 2011 (No.1 was A.R Rahman’s group ‘Super Heavy’, which included Mick Jagger & Joss Stone.) ^[15]

In January 2012, Arjun was chosen as one of MTV’s Top 20 Unsigned Acts for 2012, out of thousands of contestants.^[16] Arjun won Best Urban Act at the 2012 UK Asian Music Awards.^[17] Arjun is playing the role of Luke Lewis in new online drama "Steffi".^[18] He was later chosen by Anirudh Ravichander to perform a song in the movie Vanakkam Chennai and subsequently sang and composed other songs for South Indian movies. ^[19]

In August 2012, Arjun was selected to sing the official theme song for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2012 alongside Bathiya and Santhush.^[20] He also produced music for the Sri Lankan Premier League, performing at the opening ceremony of the tournament held at Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo in August 2012.^[21] In October 2012, Arjun won ‘Best Urban Act’ (in association with the MOBOs) at the UK Asian Music Awards 2012.^[22] He received the award from MOBOs founder Kanya King and Choice FM’s DJ Kojo. He also performed as a headline act at the Award Ceremony, held at Wembley Arena.

In September 2014 he performed at Diwali in Time Square, New York, to a crowd of over 200,000. ^[23] The same year, Arjun signed a record deal with T-Series, India’s biggest music label. ^[24] ‘I’ll Be Waiting’, his first single with T-Series album charted at #1 on the iTunes India Chart. ^[25] Arjun again won Eastern Eye Artist of the Year in 2014. ^[26]

In June 2015 Arjun supported Arijit Singh in Dubai, ^[27]and in August performed at Vestival in Amsterdam alongside Chris Brown, Tyga and French Montana. ^[28]

In April 2016 he released the song “Suit” with Guru Randhawa which went on to win ‘Club Song of the Year’ at the PTC Awards in 2017 and was nominated for three other awards. ^[29] It was also voted ‘Punjabi Song of the Year’ on BBC Asian Network. It was later featured in the Bollywood movie ‘Hindi Medium’ starring Irrfan Khan (released May 2017). ^[30]

Between 2012 and 2017 Arjun has toured extensively, performing on every continent, performing alongside the likes of Arijit Singh, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Chris Brown and Tyga. ^[31]

Discography

Songs

(Selective)

• "Just Friends" (15 December 2008)
• "Remember Tonight" (21 July 2010)
• "Stargazer" (feat. Raxstar) (24 January 2011)
• "Vampire" (feat. Starz) (4 July 2011)
• "With Us or Against Us" (with JAY MO) (16 January 2012)
• "Same Girl" (feat. Guru Randhawa) (5 December 2012)
• "Take It Back" (16 September 2013)
• "Frozen"(feat. Sway) (18 December 2015)
• "Drifter" (feat. Andrea Jeremiah ) ( 14th Feb 2016 )
• "SUIT" (feat. Guru Randhawa^[32]) ( 24 June 2016 )
• "Sanam Ho Ja" (2 September 2016)
• "Akhiyan" ( feat. Falak Shabir ) (27th Dec 2016)

Remixes

• "Why This Kolaveri Di (English R&B Remix)" (10 December 2011)
• "Kabhi Kabhi" (feat. Shivali & Natasha) (20 September 2011)
• "Chammak Challo R&B Remix" (24 January 2012)
• "Zara Zara" (3 April 2012)
• "Teri Meri" Remix (feat.Priti Menon) (25 June 2012)
• "Run Away"(Thuli Thuli Rude Boy Remix) (19 September 2012)
• "Chaiyya Chaiyya" (Super Bass Remix) (24 March 2013)
• "Tum Hi Ho" (You Got It Bad Remix) (feat. Rekha Sawhney) (26 June 2013)
• "Kabhi Jo Badal (I'll Be Waiting)" (with Arijit Singh) (23 April 2014)
• "Excuse Me Girl (Ambarsariyya)" (feat. Reality Raj & Rekha Sawhney) (19 September 2014)
• "Mohabbat Barsa De (Sawan Aaya Hai)" (Arijit Singh, Samira Koppikar) (7 October 2014)
• "I Know You Want It (Sheila Ki Jawani Remix)" (11 January 2015)
• "Baarish (All of Me)" (feat. Tulsi Kumar ) (27 May 2015)
• "Can't Forget You (Tujhe Bhula Diya)" (feat. Jonita Gandhi) (10 September 2015)
• "Drunk in Love (Beyonce remix)" (3 December 2015)
• "Bailando | Zaalima | Despacito | Enrique Iglesias, Luis Fonsi | SPANISH HINDI MASHUP" (June 22, 2017)

Soundtracks

• Vanakkam Chennai – "Oh Penne – International Version" (2013)
• Biriyani – "Bay of Bengal" (2013)
• Vaaliba Raja – "Ice Cream Penne" (2014)
• Sanam Ho Ja (2016)

References

External links

• Official page
• arjunVEVO page
• Facebook