BY DURGA CHAKRAVARTY
New Delhi– He gained the spotlight with his song ‘Tu Aake Dekhle’ in 2020 and then followed the roaring success of ‘Oops’ and ‘Maan Meri Jaan’. King has now become a global name after his track ‘Maan Meri Jaan’ was recreated by American pop star Nick Jonas, who the rapper “manifested” working with.
Talking to IANS about how it was to work with Nick, King, whose real name is Arpan Chandel said: “Obviously amazing. I have been a fan of him…Even when I was not doing music, I have been a fan of him since then.”
It’s nothing less than magic for the 24-year-old rapper, who wowed everyone with his maiden appearance on the first season of the hip-hop reality show ‘MTV Hustle’.
“So I had manifested that I would work with him and it happened. It feels like magic.”
Walking down the memory lane on how it all happened with Nick Jonas, he said: “I was touring last season and Jay Mehta was the MD of Warner music India, he’s like a big brother and he called and said Nick Jonas wants to do a track, a global version of ‘Maan Meri Jaan’ and I was like happy and I said lock it.”
“So, when the first scratch came Nick Jonas sent and then I loved it. It happened very smoothly there is not a big back story to it. It’s just when you get good artistes things automatically happen very nicely.”
“Nick is a phenomenal artiste. I have been a fan of him since very long and he understand very well.”
‘Maan Meri Jaan’ is from King’s album ‘Champagne Talk’, which was about a love lost because of a misunderstanding. The song was on Billboard India at the No. 1 spot. In March 2023, the global version ‘Maan Meri Jaan (Afterlife)’, which currently has over 6,081,565 views since it dropped in March 10.
“‘Maan Meri Jaan (Afterlife)’ is a global version and ‘Maan Meri Jaan’ was made for the Hindi core audience… It is going really well and it’s going better than what I had expected. My expectations are a hundred so its going above that.”
When asked what was the reason behind the mega success of ‘Maan Meri Jaan’, pat came the reply: “Simplicity.”
Who is King looking forward to work with after Nick Jonas? He said American rapper Jack Harlow. (IANS)