From the age of 15 years old, Chutney king Harresh Singh says, he was an entertainer. And he not only entertained at school but at other events since singing was what he enjoyed most.
It is little wonder then that the Essequibian has been crowned national Chutney king four years in a row; a position he plans to keep a firm grip on for as long as possible. “I am going to be entering every year. I am not ready [to give it up], anybody who wants to win will have to work hard for the crown,” he told The Scene.
Harresh, chatting with us via telephone from his Essequibo home, said he came from a “singing family”. His grandfather was a singer and at one time his father and his father’s male siblings had a band. “Now me and my cousins sing so you can say we come from a singing family.”
He said initially he sang any and all kinds of songs; some of which he composed and some he re-sung, but it was not profitable. He said in 1997 he realised he could make some money by singing Chutney as there were competitions he could enter and win.
He recalled that when he was very young he would sing difficult songs and a doctor, concerned for his voice, cautioned him to take it easy. “He told me that I have a good voice but I may end up with throat cancer or become a very big singer and today I am a very big singer,” Harresh said with pride in his voice.
It was not easy in the beginning for Harresh, but once he hit the jackpot in 2004 when he was crowned king, he has not looked back since.
And it’s not just the national Chutney competition that Harresh has won, he has also won 13 other regional competitions including Melody King and a Karaoke competition.
The Melody King competition, he said, entails entrants singing over big Indian hits; something he is good at. He won this competition three years in a row.
And Harresh has other talents. He is a photo journalist and once worked with the Government Information Agency (GINA) in the city before he decided to move back to Essequibo. Apart from photography, he also does some trading having long realised that he might not be able to support himself financially from singing alone although he hopes to one day make it “really big.”
As to what inspires the 34-year-old to write his Chutney lyrics, Harresh said his grandfather helped him with his first song, as he did not know much Hindi. But after the first year he was good to go even though he is still being taught Hindi by a man in the village.
His winning song this year, “Next Door Neighbour” is based on a true story as his friend had an extramarital affair with his next door neighbour but to prove to his wife that it was not true he confronted the woman in front of his wife. “It was not me I was singing about,” Harresh was quick to explain with a laugh while adding that his friend did not mind him singing the song about him. “He was happy at first,” he said, though he did not say why his friend was only happy at first. But he said his song has not caused any trouble in his friend’s marriage.
Harresh, who is married but has no children, told The Scene that he was heartened by the kind of support the competition received this year as the cash prize, “was bigger than any year and I hope it gets bigger.”
He also was happy with the publicity the competition received this year as according to him years gone by his winning received little or no publicity in the media.
“The media has been very good and they can play a big role in making things better,” he said. He also said that he wants to get more sponsorship from companies so that his career could be more lucrative. He said he has done some jingles for the television station in Essequibo and he hopes other companies would approach him to do more of the same.
Harresh holds himself in very high esteem as he feels that no other Chutney singer in the Caribbean has done as well as he has done – win the crown four times in succession. He said he loves Chutney as the “tempo puts you in the mood to dance. It is hot and spicy and since music is the spice of life, I love Chutney.”
Harresh said he feels the time has come for him to make it big on the international arena. “In the next five years I see myself making it really big, like Sean Paul and them other big singers.” And he would not only be focusing on Chutney, as soca and reggae are other genres that he loves.
He hopes by August of this year to release his first DVD and CD with a combination of songs backed by the Shakti Strings Orchestra, which is a family band operated by Cecila Samwaroo and Bato Roopchand and their 13-year-old son, Avenash Roopchand.
Harresh took the opportunity to congratulate the winners of the soca and calypso competitions, Malo and Mighty Rebel, respectively. He feels that Guyanese musicians have come a long way over the years recalling how they struggled in the past to have their music played on the radio and television stations and noting that this was no longer the case. And like many other artistes, he is hoping that the government introduces copyright laws soon, which would protect the rights of artistes and their songs.
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