The Indian Film Industry has many gems in its pocket and one of those is Shaan.
He has his voice behind more than 3000 songs, and that too in different languages. He has been working in the music industry for 30 years. His career began as a singer of jingles that were used in advertisements, and then he transformed into a music icon.
However, this journey has not been easy. It was tough for him to get the correct vocals for the very famous song “Chand Sifarish” from the movie Fanaa released in 2006. Every time Shaan recorded the song, he unknowingly ended up sounding like Udit Narayan, and the real struggle is, Shaan did not have any idea why it was like that.
The remixes Shaan created when he first entered the music industry are quite different from the remixes we hear now. He used to remix the songs from the 70s and 80s music tracks and release them in the 90s. In few songs, they came up with the twist of other languages like Punjabi and others. Shaan believes that the music you choose can make a big difference; music is all about good lyrics and melody. For a long time, Shaan chose Kishore Kumar’s top hits like Pyaar Manga Hai Tumhi Se and Roop Tera Mastana and many more.
Shaan belonged to a family with a music background but he never dreamed of becoming a singer as he saw his father struggling; he believes his father did not get the success he had deserved. Shaan lost his father at an early age, with that came the responsibilities of looking after his family; so, he started performing with his sister in live shows.
Going with the flow, Shaan had a very different vibe in his first music video. In the 90s Indian Pop music scene, along with Shaan were other singers like Alisha Chinai and Sonu Nigam. In 1999, Shaan gave two chartbuster songs “Tanha Dil” and “Musu Musu Hasi” back-to-back.
The song “Musu Musu Hasi”, which was a super hit, helped Shaan to move forward and he considers these songs as life-changing moments. Soon he was the playback singer for the movie Ashoka starring Shah Rukh Khan in 2001. After this, he enjoyed the comfort zone in the particular type of singing, but the song “Chand Sifarish” got him out of his comfort zone and pushed him to do better, and he went on to win many awards as a result.
Shaan has been in the industry when singers used to use the studio for recording songs. Meanwhile, he had to let go of the title song of “Lage Raho Munna Bhai” be as he was not able to get the song correctly.
Earlier the music composers were so particular about the requirements, so Shaan chose music directors like Ravindra Jain, Anu Malik, as they had a different style, and singers were allowed to do what they wanted. Things were eased out while working with Vishal- Shekhar, even with AR Rahman. He wanted the singers to sing with different variations and surprise him. A very famous song of his is “ Gumsum Ho Tum” which he wrote for his then girlfriend, who he married and now is his wife.
Shaan has judged the singing reality show “Saa Re Gaa Maa” from 2002 to 2006. He had also tried dancing in the reality show called Jhalak Dikhla Jaa, as he believes in trying new things,; doesn’t matter you succeed or you fail, but at least give it a try. He is a singer who has experienced the ranges from recording in the studios to recording in the digital age.
