Latest news with #Ikky
CBC
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
'We're here to to stay': South Asian artists and communities celebrate new Juno Awards category
Social Sharing South Asian community members and artists in the Greater Toronto Area say the Juno Awards' newest category is validating and that mainstream recognition is long overdue. Two Toronto-area musicians are making history with nominations in the inaugural South Asian Music Recording of the Year award: Indo-Canadian Jonita Gandhi, who grew up in Mississauga, and Yanchan Rajmohan, a Tamil-Canadian producer from Scarborough known as Yanchan Produced. "It's still a wild moment for me, to be honest. I've been dreaming about this," Yanchan told CBC News. "I'm just grateful and happy that our moment is coming." South Asian artists often appear on Junos' nomination lists, but this year's award show on Sunday will formally recognize their music and international impact. "Canada has proven to be at the epicentre of South Asian music globally," a Junos media release reads. "South Asian Music Recording of the Year will celebrate recordings throughout the diaspora, supporting their tremendous growth and success." WATCH | The GTA's Punjabi music epicentre: How Brampton, Ont. became a powerhouse within the Punjabi music industry 3 years ago Duration 12:00 Yanchan's track Chai and Sunshine with singer Anjulie was acclaimed by Rihanna and Selena Gomez, and Gandhi is one of Bollywood's biggest playback singers. This is the first Juno nomination for each of them, with Gandhi the only woman nominated in the South Asian category. Gandhi says the journey to this moment has been unbelievable. She went from being teased at school for how she looked to reaching global fame. "When I was young, I was kind of just trying to assimilate into the culture here in Toronto. I wanted to fit in and do what's cool and that was probably in my head, singing in English and ignoring the fact that my mom was packing rotis for my lunch that day," said Gandhi. "I think if someone was to tell me back then that this would be my life, the little version of me would never believe it." Folk singer and former radio producer Harjot Ghuman-Matharu says the award is an "incredible addition" to the Junos and reflects the hard work artists have been putting in for years, if not decades. "It's very validating to have our music and our culture being recognized, because it is Canadian — it is Canadian music," she said. "We've been here for over 100 years in Canada, and we are part of the cultural shift and the cultural norm within Canada." Despite South Asian artists' success and crossovers into the mainstream, pushback still exists, says Ikky, a Punjabi music producer from Rexdale, who has worked with the likes of Tory Lanez, OneRepublic, and the late Sidhu Moose Wala. "I think when we did the Junos, a lot of people were upset about it," Ikky told Q earlier this month, referring to his 2024 Junos performance with rapper Karan Aujla. WATCH | Karan Aujla and Ikky perform at the 2024 Junos Karan Aujla feat. Ikky performs 'Admirin You' & 'Softly | Juno Awards 2024 1 year ago Duration 3:25 Karan Aujla and Ikky perform 'Admirin You' & 'Softly' at the 2024 Juno Awards. Host Nelly Furtado hosted the 2024 JUNO Awards on Sunday, March 24, live from Halifax. Featuring performances from the Beaches, Maestro Fresh Wes, TALK, Josh Ross, as well as appearance from Elliot Page, Tegan and Sara and more. "People were like, 'If this is Canada, I don't want to be a part of it.' And I was like, 'I'm born here though'... I want to see Canada kind of open their minds up to music at least." Looking ahead to the weekend's award ceremonies in Vancouver, Yanchan says when he and his fellow nominees arrive, it'll make a bold statement. "We're here to stay, and we have a seat at the table," he said. The winner of the South Asian Music Recording of the Year will be announced on Saturday during the Junos Awards Gala and the event will be live streamed on CBC Gem.
CBC
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Ikky is making mega-hits, while building a foundation for Punjabi music in Canada
Canadian producer and composer Ikky has wanted to produce a song in both English and Punjabi for "a very long time." Ikwinder Singh, better known as Ikky, skyrocketed to fame in 2023 after collaborating with Karan Aujla as an executive producer on Aujla's record Making Memories, which has now been streamed over two billion times. In an interview with Q 's Tom Power, Ikky reflects on his new single with Aujla and OneRepublic, Tell Me, and explains why it took 20 years for Punjabi music to hit the mainstream globally. WATCH | Ikky's full interview with Tom Power: Although writing and producing a bilingual single has always been on his bucket list, Ikky says he's focused more on the songwriting than who's featured on the track. "If it's not a [well] written song, then no matter what feature, what stature of artists you get on the record, it doesn't work." Born and raised in the Rexdale neighbourhood of Toronto to first-generation Sikh immigrants from India, he wanted to help create "a song that can live in both worlds." "It's important for me. I was born here. I speak in English more than I speak in Punjabi. Obviously as a producer I want there to be a song that can live in both worlds. And this was that. It just happened to be organic," he says. Twenty years ago, Panjabi MC teamed up with American rapper and hip-hop artist Jay-Z on Beware Of The Boys, a dual English and Punjabi single that reached No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. When asked why Punjabi music didn't become mainstream during the height of the song's popularity, Ikky points out the lack of foundation for other Punjabi producers and collaborators. "I felt like at that time, what happened was you got this one record, but there are no others, there's nothing else barging into that same door, no other Punjabi producers, no more Punjabi collaborations. The setup wasn't there. And so I think that's what's different now, 20 years later. We're actually trying to build that foundation and not just find a hit." Ikky realized that bringing Punjabi music to a wider audience required sticking to a plan and taking things one step at a time. "I would say Punjabi Canadian music is a big export in Canadian music right now. It's part of the plan. You want the system to be with it. And I'm very much into making your own town like what you're doing and then making your country like what you're doing and then get bigger from there. "The plan is working. We got Vancouver on lock, we got Toronto on lock, we got Canada on lock. And now we just want to take over."
