Jazzy B

Jazzy B ("The Crown Prince of Bhangra" and "The Original Folksta"), born on April 1, 1975 as Jaswinder Singh Bains in Nawanshahr, Punjab, India, is a popular Bhangra artist who is easily recognized by fans of the genre with his spiky hair,and hott teeth stylish clothes, and the range and depth of his vocals. He moved to Vancouver, Canada at the age of five and now resides in Birmingham, England. He has worldwide appeal as he often tours Canada, England, India, the United States, and many other parts of the world where there is a large Punjabi population. Before becoming a Punjabi singer, Jazzy was a star hockey player for his high school hockey team and was pursuing a career in professional sports.

'Hat Picheh: The Canadian Spice', his successful debut album, was released in 1993 and instantly made him a star. Since then he has become the best-selling Bhangra artist in the world, helping bring the genre back to the forefront of the Asian music scene. He has released eleven albums including 'Folk 'n' Funky' in 1995, 'All Eyez on Me' in 1999, 'Surma' in 2000, 'Oh Kehri' in 2001, 'Tera Roop' in 2002, and his latest release 'Romeo' in 2004.

His albums are produced by Sukhshinder Shinda, a talented Bhangra producer and artist known as 'The Music Man'. Together they have created some of the most popular Bhangra hits, including "Ghugian da Jorra", "Londono Patola", "Naag", "Tera Roop", "Sardara", "Dil Luteya", and "Soorma".

In 1997, Jazzy B had major problems with his throat which required surgery. Having lost his voice and not being able to sing for over a year, he says he turned to God for help and miraculously got his voice back. After going through this experience, he did something very uncommon at the time for a Bhangra superstar by releasing the Sikhi spiritual album 'Singha di Kaum Bahdhur hai' in 1999. Since then other popular Punjabi artists have followed in his steps and released religious material.

Jazzy B made his acting debut in 2000 with a cameo appearance in the Bollywood film 'Shaheed Udham Singh' which starred fellow Punjabi singer and actor Gurdas Maan. His music was also featured on the film's album. In 2006, Jazzy B made another cameo when he was featured in the movie 'Teesri Aankh' performing the bhangra-pop song 'Chug De Punjabi'.

The reason for Jazzy B's popularity and success in Bhangra is his style which is quite different from other artists in the genre. From his unique appearance to his westernized songs and music videos, he has revolutionized the image of Bhangra. The music videos for his latest singles "Soorma" and "Romeo" have been based on American Hip hop music videos and feature Hummer H2's and the Rap group Takeova Ent. In 2005 there was some controversy regarding the video for his single "Romeo" in which the actors appearing in the video along with Jazzy B were known drug dealers who were later convicted of various drug related charges. The H2 Hummers featured in the video were also supplied by these actors, and were later re-possessed by the federal government. Also in 2005 Jazzy B and fellow music star Sukshinder Shinda had a tour called "Balle - Romeo", which promoted Jazzy B's album Romeo and Sukshinder Shinda's album Balle. He played at various places around the world including Paramount Canada's Wonderland which attracted an amazing crowd of over 65 000 people. This was a record breaking day for Canada's Wonderland never having this many attendants the the theme park in it's history.

He has been compared to legendary Bhangra artist Kuldip Manak, whom he considers an idol and inspiration.