Ash King

Ash King (born Ashutosh Ganguly Bengali: আশুতোষ গাঙ্গুলী) is a singer of Bengali and Gujarati^[1] origin based in London. He made his playback singing debut in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Delhi-6.^[2][3]

Personal life

Ash King hails from a family of musicians who have shaped his relationship with music. His grandfather was the first Indian classical music teacher at Nobel prize for literature winner Rabindranath Tagore's home and school Shantiniketan, and also a prominent freedom fighter for India. King spent his childhood surrounded by celebrated musical artists with whom his father worked closely with.Music has always run in his family. His father used to perform with Ravi Shankar in India back in the sixties. He recalls that when he was very young, George Harrison visited their house at Wembley as he was into Indian classical music. His mother hails from Karamsad, Gujarat.^[1]

Influenced early on by joining a Gospel choir and listening to soul artistes such as Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Al Green and Luther Vandross, King’s style and flavour deliver a sound that is easy on the ear and alluring even for those who aren’t drawn by his specialised genre. However, you would be mistaken to think King’s talents lie in just the one genre.

Career

His first Bollywood break was with A. R. Rahman on the film Delhi-6 which he recorded at Rahman's personal studio. Rahman invited King, to his London home after friends sang his praises. He was so impressed with the 25-year-old's voice, he flew him to Chennai to record in his private studio. Since then he has gone on to sing Te Amo for the film Dum Maaro Dum, I Love You for the film Bodyguard and featured on Suno Aisha from the film Aisha.

Ash Featured on Lady Gaga's official single for Bad Romance on a remix of Just Dance, this was also used in the remix album and the Asian release of the album.^[4]

Ash is also a prominent singer in the UK, having sung and co-written the song Love Is Blind which he sang with singer Ramzi and featured on the song Look For Me with Hard Kaur.^[5] In 2011, Ash performed at some of the biggest events in the U.K including performances at Glastonbury Festival for the BBC^[6] and also performed on the main stage at the BBC London Mela.^[7] After 2011, in 2012 Ash was appointed for a Bengali song "Kothin" of Bojhena Shey Bojhena film. He also took part in MTV India's prestigious 'MTV Unplugged' - Series 2, with a whole episode dedicated to his hits. Other performers included A R Rahman, Sunidhi Chauhan and Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan. In April 2013 he headlined a concert at the prestigious Southbank Centre in London, alongside Sufi/Bollywood singer Harshdeep Kaur.

Filmography

Non-Film

• Look For Me
• Take It Easy
• Love Is Blind
• Bad Romance Remix from Lady Gaga Just Dance Album with Lady Gaga, Lush, Wedis and Young Thoro

References

External links

• Official Web Site for Ash King
• Ash King at the Internet Movie Database