He was born with a mercurial flair for the arts. When he was just four-years old, his singing ability won him admission into a school meant for six-year-olds. Ever since, the thirty-something Malkit Singh has maintained his head start on the competition, taking Punjabi bhangra music into realms previously unexplored. True to his name, Malkit, which translates to ‘One Has Rules The World’, has taken his music from the Punjabi vernacular to cross-cultural experiments ranging from rap and house to the Hindi film screens. The traditional folk music has gone from the relative obscurity of a Punjabi village to the heady heights of a world stage. As the music spreads its wings across the globe, Malkit Singh encompasses an audience of all ages.
In 1981, his winning of the third Punjab collegiate competition award was marked with a “golden star” pendant. Malkit adopted the name for his band, and the Golden Star band is as synonymous to Malkit as the E-Street Band is to Bruce Springsteen.
As we move into 2002, Malkit Singh is still winning new audiences in the exploding world of bhangra and in the process he’s opening the floodgates for many upcoming Bhangra artists.
With over 200 album credits and countless hit songs to his name, Sukshinder Shinda has thrived in the music business for more than a decade. He has produced over 10 worldwide smash-hit albums, overseen the development of many new artists and has had his music featured on a number of Bollywood film soundtracks too. With this glorious portfolio to accompany him, Sukshinder Shinda can proudly call himself ‘ The Music Man ‘.
His extensive experience with percussion and music recording has included working with artists like Panjabi MC, Gurdas Mann and AS Kang and in 1986, Shinda helped launch Jazzy B’s career by producing and composing his first album ‘Ghugian da Jorra’. In addition to working with many of Bhangra’s top artists, Sukshinder Shinda has been instrumental on over 200 separate albums and recordings to date. His colourful culture and bright music is completely different to that of others, having more connections with the sub-continent as well as the UK, Shinda shows again his natural affinity with different genres of music.
His recording career, originally focused in the Birmingham area, has seen him record and play live around the world and on some of the biggest stages. In 2002, Shinda saw his unique sound for A S Kang (‘Aish Karo’) and Jazzy B (‘Oh Kedi’) take hold of audiences across the continents of the world with an undoubted mass appeal and in turn he has earned a highly respected reputation as a musician of the highest order.
Shinda – the producer, composer, arranger, singer and musician from Handsworth, Birmingham - is a music machine. Since his introduction to his mentor Kuldip S. Matharu, his tutorship under legendary Gold champion Dhol player Laal S. Bhatti and under the wing of his teacher and ‘Guru’ Ustad Ajit S. Mathalashi ji, Shinda’s creative talents have seen him revolutionize the sound of the harmonium, tabla and keyboards with style.
Currently, in addition to his continuing career as a producer, Shinda’s debut solo album ‘Gal Sun Ja’ and the latest release ‘Balle!’ (not to be mistaken with his albums featuring his name) find his own vocals throughout. Bhangra beats pumping up the adrenaline, with sugary sweet vocals, Shinda takes big strides towards musical immortality …sublime bhangra-olgy!