HT Cafe

I’m the best at singing romantic songs: Armaan

- Titas Chowdhury ht.cafe@htlive.com ■

Armaan Malik belongs to a family of musicians but he chose to take the road less travelled. At the age of eight, he contested in a reality show and since then there has been no looking back for the singerperf­ormer. “Since childhood, I had this dream wherein I wanted to prove to the world that I’m a singer on my own merit. I didn’t want my family name to overshadow my talent. My mum wanted me to participat­e in the reality show, but my father (Daboo Malik; music composer and singer) wasn’t very keen about it.”

He adds, “It’s not a very convention­al thing to do for a person from a renowned musical family. You always wait for your family members to launch you. But I always wanted to compete with the best. I wanted to prove my mettle on that stage.”

He says that he had his “first brush with popularity” at nine. He shares, “Following the show, I got the chance to record a few songs for Hindi films as a child artiste. That’s how my playback singing career took off.”

The 24-year-old singer, who has belted out multiple chartbuste­rs, says that his big moment arrived when people started believing that he can handle emotionall­y heavy numbers. “When people heard my non-film single, Main Rahoon Ya Na Rahoon, featuring Emraan Hashmi, they took notice of me and realised that I mean business and I’m here to stay. This song is the catalyst in my career as it reinstated people’s belief in me. At the age of 20, when you sing songs like these, people tend to question if you’ve faced the intense emotions that you convey through your songs. It eventually resonated with a lot of people,” he says with a smile.

Armaan adds that one of his biggest dreams is to lend his voice to Shah

Rukh Khan.

“He’s the definition of romance. And

I’m the best at singing romantic songs. It would be a perfect collaborat­ion. He’s known as the king of romance and my fans call me the prince of romance. A king and a prince must unite for a song someday,” he laughs.

For him, visibility for a singer is as important as it is for an actor.

He explains,

“With music singles and non-film songs, such as Tootey

Khaab and

Ghar Se Nikalte

Hi in my case, you can be in front of the camera.

Now, there is a face to the voice. People can recognise singers by their faces and know about the person behind the microphone. What has contribute­d to this in a big way is social media.” Hinting at his

upcoming projects, Armaan excitedly says, “I’m working on some internatio­nal music, which I plan to release in 2020. Apart from that, Bhuvan (Bam; comedian and internet sensation) and I have been in talks for a while now. He’s a good singer. We’re planning to jam and come up with a new song soon.”

Shah Rukh Khan is the definition of romance. And I’m the best at singing romantic songs. It would be a perfect collaborat­ion. ARMAAN MALIK, SINGER-PERFORMER

 ??  ?? A still from the song Tootey Khaab
A still from the song Tootey Khaab

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