The best of American and Indian pop music has come together in the most recent mashup to go viral, as a team of artists from both countries have combined Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and A.R. Rahman's "Chaiya Chaiya," a popular track from a 1998 Bollywood film.
The video—carried out by producer Kurt Hugo-Schneider, musician Shankar Tucker, and vocalists Sam Tsui and Vidya Iyer—switches between the Iyer singing the Hindi hit and Tsui (whose vocals are impressively accurate to Jackson's) performing "Don't Stop." Tucker's clarinet and Indian percussion adds a different instrumental vibe. The clip features the foursome at various locations around Mumbai, including some attempts at dance numbers...albeit not as impressive as the song's original routine.
In context, it's not surprising at all that the video has ended up going viral in India (and is on its way in the United States and elsewhere). After all, the group came together at the YouTube Fan Fest in Mumbai. Hugo-Schneider and Tsui had worked together before, notably on a medley of Jackson songs, while Tucker had worked with Iyer as part of his own Indian jazz fusion project. The rest, as they say, is history.
It helps to get some celebrity sponsorship of course. Shah Rukh Khan, an Indian actor who starred in the film Dil Se (which originally featured "Chaiya Chaiya") shared the mashup on his Twitter account, essentially promoting it to 13 million people.
"Chaiya Chaiya" isn't entirely new territory to Western viewers. Spike Lee gave the song some exposure during 2006 with his film Inside Man, featuring the track during both the opening and closing credits.
India, like the rest of the world, has a healthy interest in the music of Jackson. The Bombay Flip Project created a new version of the single "Love Never Felt So Good" for the Indian release of Xscape last year.
Check out the clip below:
