UK singer Shahin Badar has become a crossover artiste singing with Western pop bands. Her single ‘Hayati...’ is the latest addition to her repertoire...

Singer Shahin Badar got her bit of glory when she wrote and vocalled her alaap chants to a headline track for the single ‘Smack my bitch up...’ from the album Fat Of The Land, by the group Prodigy. The album went on to sell nearly 10 million copies, and hit the number one spot in 21 countries, and entered the Guinness Book of Records as the fastest selling album in the world at the time of it’s release.

This time her song-writing and vocal talents are once more called upon as she teams up with the UK-based punk legend Jah Wobble and Temple of Sound to headline the track-listing for the album Shout At The Devil with the single Hayati. Jah Wobble plays keyboards and bass, Temple of Sound Neil Sparks adds percussion via congos and bongos, the programming guitar and strings credentials are added by dubmaster Count Dubulah, formerly of Transglobal Underground. With Shahin’s vocals, the result is a unique blend of the Nile delta via stepney...nubian trance. The other vocal contributors are Natacha Atlas and Nina Miranda.

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The video for the ‘Hayati...’ single was produced by Shahin herself and filmed by John Wilmor in India. Shahin wanted the video to be simple yet effective.

‘Hayati...’ in Arabic means ‘My life’, and the track is a bilingual. The hook and lyrics are created and written by Shahin, which is a blend of Arabic and Urdu lyrics. She wanted to target the norm with the simplicity and depth of her vocals by creating emotions. Many women are able to relate to the song and the feedback has been very positive. The verdict is that it’s different from what’s out there in the market. The outcome of her message is Khuda sab dekhta hai ...khuda sab jaanta hai.
The album Shout At The Devil has been released in UK, Italy, Paris and other European countries from 30 Hertz Records, and ‘Hayati...’ also sees a USA release on the album titled Spiritual Beauty on Meta Records. Both, ‘Smack my bitch up...’ and ‘66 meters...’ have stood the test of time as Shahin’s previous hit collabrations are currently on successfull compilation release through Sony Music.

‘66 meters...’ was at No. 16 in the independent charts in UK, and is out in India on the compilation Karma Club, and the ‘Smack my bitch up...’ single is out on DJ Files.

Shahin’s lyrics and different vocal style have been also used in films as varied as the Hollywood film Charlie’s Angels to Bollywood’s Dhai Akshar Prem Ke and Zubeida, where she sings the powerful Arabic exotic chants. Her haunting lyrical and vocal output was also picked up by the Greek producer Lakis Lazipolous for the film My Best Friend Had The Memory Of A Gold Fish.

Shahin was short-listed for the highly prestigious Asian Women Achievement Awards (AWAA) for the second time round, the patron for the event being the Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife Cherie Blair. The AWAA is an award ceremony that recognises and rewards the outstanding achievements of Asian women within UK, in and outside of the community. The event was held on May 16, 2002.