Diversity key for Shahin

08 October 2008

IT'S BEEN two years in the making, but award-winning Gants Hill singer Shahin Badar finally releases her debut solo album next week.

Shahin has enjoyed a critically-acclaimed career already, enjoying a number one hit with The Prodigy - the multi million-selling anthem, Smack My Bitch Up. She also appeared on two other Prodigy albums and worked with dance producer Tim Deluxe on his massive club hit, Mundaya.

Her distinctive voice has featured on 30 Hollywood and Bollywood films, including Oscar-nominated Closer and Charlie's Angels. On top of that, she toured with 50 Cent when he performed in Lebanon recently.

She won Best Female Vocalist at the Asian Pop Awards, and also received gongs at the Ethnic Multicultural Media Awards and Asian Women of Achievement Awards.

Her album, Laila, has 18 tracks, including the Tim Deluxe cut and many other contemporary dance records, and showcases how Shahin's distinctive Asian chants can be used over various types of electronic music.

She told the Recorder Review: "I was brought up listening to mainly world dance infused sounds and I applied those influences in some of my songs, which worked really well. I wanted to keep it diverse. It's also the first time I've recorded my vocals in English and I wanted to give it a different vibe."

Describing some of the songs, she enthuses: "Andheri Raati, produced by Cut's Oblique, has great depth with some haunting chants and Distortion, produced by Germany's dance maestro Doug Laurent, has an electro feel. My other favourite is Doleh Reh, an uptempo number produced by Mercury Music Award-nominated Choque Hosain."

She added a techno number, called Bangladesh, "especially for my fans in the Bengali community".

For the strong, almost Gorillaz-esque album artwork, she teamed up with Japanese artist Satoshi Yoshika.

Shahin explains: "I wanted something unique, something that relates to my persona as an artist. I'm happy that it depicts the strength of a woman."

She adds: "He [Satoshi] is a genius. I gave him a deadline and he delivered. I sent him over a picture of myself, described my theme, sent him some of my own drawings and boom, the album work was born."

Laila is out on Monday on Cargo Records.