From pop-star to collaborating with Abhishek Bachchan to personally buying lights for rural school-children in Tanzania
Canadian pop music star Raghav is set to release his new summer single ‘Until The Sun Comes Up’ later this August.
What’s different about this track is that as well as having an appeal as an instant summer anthem, it’s accompanied by a powerful full video highlighting the lack of electricity in Africa.
The track features Grammy Award winning rapper Nelly, and an exclusive version that features the hip-hop styling of bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan.
After teaming up with Solar-Aid.org, an international NGO that has the goal of eliminating the kerosene lamp from Africa by the year 2020, Raghav distributed over 300 solar lights, which he personally bought, to school-age children in the small rural township of Shungubweni, in Tanzania.
The lights will help the students of Shungubweni Secondary School study for an extra 375,000 hours, and save their families almost £39,000 per light as they will no longer needed to buy kerosene or candles. This amounts to a significant shift towards environmental responsibility and self-sustainability for the families who have received these lights.
Segments of Raghav’s trip will be featured in the music video for ‘Until The Sun Comes Up’, with the aim of creating significant social awareness around the topic.
Of the track Raghav says: “I hope people will look years from now at this song being a singular moment when east and west collaborated in a way that has a true global musical impact. And performing it with Abhishek, who is the most talented human I’ve ever met, and Nelly, who is a legend, make this song even more special to me.”
Bachchan, who has starred in over 50 major bollywood productions, is known for his love of music and having previously featured as a rapper in his movies, he dons the microphone once again for a verse on ‘Until The Sun Comes Up’ in his unique ‘Bachchan-esque’ style.
He expressed his excitement on his Twitter page, personally thanking Raghav, and stating the collaboration was ‘an opportunity to work with two of my favourites.’
Rap star Nelly, a Grammy award-winning artist with four UK number ones under his belt also takes a verse on ‘Until The Sun Comes Up’. Last year the rapper-turned-TV-star secured his own reality show ‘Nellyville’, which is currently in its second season. His collaboration with Raghav and Bachchan is an exciting move for rap music lovers in India.
Since announcing the collaboration, social media has been buzzing with conversation about the three stars teaming up for the big summer single, with thousands of tweets from pop, hip hop and bollywood music fans around the world. The lyric video has received over 35,000 views in just 24 hours since launching on YouTube.
