Regina-born singer Tesher, of “Jalebi Baby” fame, is getting candid about Asian representation in music and the significance of social media in today’s age.
“Jalebi Baby” was originally a remix of Justin Bieber’s “Yummy” with Bollywood song “Jalebi Baby.” However, after its success on TikTok and Instagram, Tesher revised the piece by removing “Yummy” and adding extended original lyrics in Punjabi and English.
The song became a viral sensation, topping the Shazam charts in 25+ countries and amassing over 100 million combined global streams in a few months. In 2022, Tesher performed “Jalebi Baby” with Simu Liu at the Juno Awards. It was also featured in an episode of the Iman Vellani-led Disney+ series “Ms. Marvel.”
READ MORE: Simu Liu And Tesher Team Up For Special Performance At The 2022 Juno Awards
Speaking about his biggest takeaway from the phenomenal success of “Jalebi Baby,” Tesher said, “Be yourself and trust the process. I think that (Jalebi Baby) was a song that didn’t fit any traditional boxes.
“Everyone always told me that if you wanted to make it big as a person of colour in the music industry, you had to become a Punjabi singer, which is certainly true if you look at who really made it. So everyone’s like, ‘The time for fusion music isn’t working.’ But then I looked at what was happening in the world, how K-Pop was rising to the top, and how Latin music was rising to the top. And I’m just like, that’s obviously not true because we can do something with the Indian sound as well.”
He adds, “I always loved mixing songs together through mash-ups earlier when I was producing. But as I started to make my own music, I wanted to put my voice into it. So, maybe it had some Punjabi lines, some Urdu lines, some Hindi lines, and some instrumentation from different parts of South Asia. And yeah, I trusted my gut. And that’s how we came up with ‘Jalebi Baby,’ and my beliefs about what would work were validated. So, nobody can tell me sh-t now.”
2023 proved a successful year for Indian music, with AP Dhillon making history with the first Punjabi performance at the Juno Awards and Diljit Dosanjh becoming the first Punjabi singer to perform at Coachella. Tesher applauds the acceptance and emergence of Indian music globally while adding fans should not get into the race of “the firsts.”
“I think it’s fantastic. But, I think that there should be more. I think that as a as a community, we just need to keep going,” says Tesher, adding, “I think that sometimes we get caught up in the firsts a lot. I think sometimes with this Instagram culture, we get really caught up in the firsts,” says Tesher.
“We should celebrate and recognize these things, but I want things to keep going. This needs to inspire more people to keep doing the same thing. That’s why I was really happy when we had AP Dhillon at the Junos, cause I’m like, ‘Thank God that all the work that we put in to try to get ‘Jalebi Baby’ on the Junos didn’t go for nothing.’ So I hope somebody does something else after this. And I hope that after Diljit and Ali Sethi did Coachella, next we have another talented artist representing the Indian and South Asian subcontinent there.”
“Our culture is our greatest export and one thing that unites us globally,” he says.
“Jalebi Baby” owes its success to social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, as it was a popular choice for reels and videos. “As far as the importance of social media, I feel like, ‘If you still don’t understand this, I don’t think you ever will.’ Being online is so fundamental and a large part of our everyday lives that to not be on social media as an artist, I don’t see how you intend to find any success if you’re not using the biggest medium of the era,” explains Tesher.
Tesher recently collaborated with another Canadian artist, Raghav, best known for mid-2000s hits like “Angel Eyes” and “So Confused” among others.
“I think that the best way to honor the legends in our community is to collaborate with them and show them love,” says Tesher. He adds that his journey closely resembles that of Raghav, who was born in Toronto and grew up in Calgary and Fort McMurray, Alberta.
“We grew up in the most Canadian of Canadian places, Calgary and Regina. Yet somehow we found ways to mix English with Hindi and make these catchy beats that brought on world influences, like ‘Angel Eyes’ is a very Caribbean beat.”
Tesher says that Raghav was ahead of his time. “I think that those songs — as big as hits as they were — would have been even bigger hits if they would have come out today.”
Tesher tells ET Canada that he has a new single up his sleeve, which is out on May 26. “It’s going to be an absolute banger. And I think, if anything, people on TikTok will really like this one. It’s very, very high dance energy. I’m really looking forward to sharing this song with the world and back with the TikTok community I’ve built.”
