biddu orchestra, rain forest
1976 stereo.disappeared internet theme for strange reasons
This article is about the Indian-British music producer. For the
Palestinian village in the
West Bank, see
Biddu, Jerusalem.
Biddu
Birth name Biddu Appaiah
Born 1944 (age 70–71)
Bangalore, Karnataka,
India
Genres
British soul, disco, dance,
Euro disco, film score, funk, Hi-NRG, house,
Indian pop, J-pop,
Northern soul, pop, post-disco, rock, synthpop, world
Occupation(s)
Singer, songwriter, producer
Years active
1960s–present
Associated acts
Carl Douglas,
Tina Charles,
Jimmy James,
The Buggles,
Kelly Marie,
Claude François,
The Tigers,
Akina Nakamori,
Nazia Hassan,
Zohaib Hassan,
Alisha Chinai,
Shweta Shetty,
Shaan,
Sagarika,
Sonu Nigam
Biddu, or Biddu Appaiah (
Kannada: ಬಿದ್ದು ಅಪ್ಪಯ್ಯ) (born 1944),[1] is an Indian-born, England-based music producer, composer, songwriter and singer who produced and composed many hit records worldwide during a career spanning five decades.[2][3] Considered one of the pioneers of disco,[
3][4] Euro disco,[1] and Indian pop,[2][5] he has sold millions of records worldwide,[3] and has received
Grammy[6] and
Ivor Novello awards for his work.[3] He has been ranked at number 34 on
NME's "The 50
Greatest Producers Ever" list.[7]
Biddu was born in Bangalore, Karnataka,
India. He began his music career in the 1960s, singing as part of a music band in India before moving to
England where he would start his career as a producer.[1] He eventually found some success producing a hit song for
Japanese band The Tigers in
1969,[8] scoring the soundtrack for
1972 British film Embassy,[9] and producing several early disco songs that would find a niche audience in
British northern soul clubs during the early
1970s.[3]
His international breakthrough came in
1974 with "
Kung Fu Fighting" performed by Carl Douglas; the song became one of the best-selling
singles of all time with eleven million records sold, helped popularise disco music,[3][8] was the first worldwide disco hit from
Britain[9] and
Europe,[1] and established Biddu as one of the most prolific dance music producers from outside the
United States at the time.[3] He soon began producing his own instrumental albums under the name
Biddu Orchestra, which started an orchestral disco trend in Britain and Europe with
1975 hits "
Summer of '42" and
Blue Eyed Soul;[1][9] his solo albums eventually sold 40 million copies worldwide.[3] He also launched the careers of other British disco stars such as Tina Charles,[3] helping her sell 36 million records within a few years,[10] and Jimmy James;[9] scored soundtracks for several
British films such as
The Stud (1978);[1] and produced a hit song for late
French singer Claude François.[11] Biddu also experimented with electronic disco[11] and
Hi-NRG music[12][13] from the mid-1970s, and influenced
British new wave bands such as The Buggles, founded by two of his former session musicians
Trevor Horn and
Geoff Downes.[14][15]
Following the decline of disco in the
Western world, he later found success in
Asia during the
1980s, where he launched the careers of the late
Pakistani pop singer Nazia Hassan and her brother Zohaib; he produced their debut
album Disco Deewane, which charted in fourteen countries and became the best-selling
Asian pop album up until that time,[5] and helped the duo eventually sell 60 million records worldwide.[16] During that decade, he also produced several hit Bollywood soundtracks for films such as
Qurbani (
1980)[17] as well as several hit songs for
Japanese pop idol Akina Nakamori[18][19] and
Chinese pop singer
Samantha Lam (
林志美).[20] In the
1990s, he popularised Indian pop with the hit album
Made in India (
1995), which became the best-selling pop album in India and launched the career of Alisha Chinai, after which he would launch the careers of several more Indian pop acts such as Shaan and his sister Sagarika as well as Sonu Nigam.[2][5] In the
2000s, Biddu has been active in the
Western and
Indian music scenes producing albums which are more spiritual and Eastern-oriented.He rearranged a classical hit for
Luke Kenny's film,
Rise of the Zombie
- published: 29 Oct 2015
- views: 258