Rabbi Shergill
Rabbi Shergill (born Gurpreet Singh Shergill, 1975) is an Indian musician famous for his debut album Rabbi and the chart-topper song of 2005, "Bulla Ki Jaana". His music has been described variously as rock, Sufiana, and "semi-Sufi semi-folksy kind of music with a lot of Western arrangements." Rabbi himself has been called "Punjabi music's true urban balladeer".
Early Years
After leaving college, he composed jingles for a while, some of them were for Yamaha RX-T motorbikes, and Times FM.[1]Rabbi struggled for many years to get his debut album published. Initially he worked with Sony Music, but Sony backed out. He then approached Minty Tejpal, brother of Tehelka's editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal, who liked his music and offered him a contract. Soon after Tehelka ran into financial problems and eventually cancelled the contract. Magnasound also offered him a contract, but the company became bankrupt before the album could materialize. He was finally signed on by Phat Phish Records, who brought out his debut album
Breakthrough
His first album Rabbi was released in 2004. Relying on word-of-mouth publicity and a music video, Rabbi Shergill was an instant success. The song "Bulla Ki Jaana" was the most frequently played non-film song of 2005 in India. The other songs in the album include songs of joy ("Ajj Nachna"), love ("Tere Bin") and even on contemporary issues ("Jugni").
Most of the songs in the album were composed and written by Rabbi himself except for "Bulla ki Jana" based on the poetry of 18th century Muslim Sufi mystic Baba Bulleh Shah, "Heer" from Heer by Waris Shah and "Ishtihar" by Shiv Kumar Batalvi.
Later career
Rabbi has since worked as a music director and lyricist for the Hindi movie, Delhii Heights. He has also performed at the World Social Forum in Brazil, played at the inauguration of the Tri-Continental Film Festival in New Delhi and performed in other Live Shows.
On April 9 2008, Nokia India announced that Shergill's album, Avengi Ja Nahin, would be available exclusively on its Nseries range of multimedia devices for a period of one month prior to its audio cd release. The album contains nine songs and deals with issues like communal violence, social responsibility and the need for “collective morality”.
Musical Style
Shergill's principal contribution to music lies in his use of the Punjabi (?) — which previously had a reputation similar to that of either Bhangra or traditional folk — to create acoustic rock-based ballads, providing a new musical perspective to this language. And with his poetic, socially relevant lyrics and an adult alternative sound, Shergill instantly connected with an urban crowd who loved him for his genuine and original approach to his songs. His songs are deeply philosophical and blend archaic, almost lost, Punjabi phrases into far more recent Indian rock music with great ease.
Rabbi's music has been inspired by Rock as well as Sufi and Punjabi folk music. His favourite musicians include Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Jimmy Page and Bally Jagpal.
Personal life
Rabbi's father was a Sikh preacher and his mother is a college principal and also a Punjabi poet. Rabbi has four sisters. He is an alumnus of Guru Harkrishan Public School, India Gate and University of Delhi's renowned Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College. After college, he went for further studies at the Fore School of Management but dropped out a year later
Rabbi is Rabbi Shergill's debut album
Rabbi is Rabbi Shergill's debut album which was released in 2004 by Phat Phish Records. The album was an instant hit and grabbed notable airtime on radio. While the company initially only put out 10,000 copies for sale, the album went on to sell in excess of 100,000 copies.[1]
The opening track, "Bulla Ki Jaana" is one of the Rabbi's most recognized songs. The song is based on the poetry of 18th century Sufi saint Baba Bulleh Shah. "Heer" is written by another Sufi poet Waris Shah, while "Ishtihar" has been written by Shiv Kumar Batalvi. Rest of the other songs are written by Rabbi himself. The song "Jugni" is regarding the social problems spread in various parts of India. this song also includes an excerpt from Atal Bihari Vajpayee's speech in his own voice. Jugni is a mythical traveler of Punjabi folklore
Track listing
All songs are composed by Rabbi Shergill.
"Bulla Ki Jana" - 5:16 "Tere Bin" - 5:20 "Heer" - 5:25 "Ishtihar" - 6:32 "Totia Manmotia" - 4:36 "Ajj Nachna" - 4:07 "Gill 'Te Guitar" - 4:34 "Ek Geet Hijar Da" - 4:44 "Jugni" - 4:35
