Shayan Chowdhury Arnob

Artist from Bangladesh

Swapan Chowdhury was a member of the traveling music band that participated in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 and was featured in the documentary Muktir Gaan.

Arnob's uncle, Tapan Chowdhury, was a prominent solo artist and a member of the Bangladeshi rock band Souls.

He is a cousin to Bangladeshi actress, model, and singer Rafiath Rashid Mithila.

Arnob started schooling at Willes Little Flower School in Dhaka.

Shayan Chowdhury Arnob (born 27 January 1978) is a Bangladeshi singer-songwriter, musician, painter, filmmaker, animator and producer.

Arnob was born in Dhaka on January 27, 1978, to painter couple Swapan Chowdhury and Suraiya Chowdhury.

However, in 1985, at the insistence of his mother, Arnob was admitted to Patha Bhavana, a school affiliated with Vishva Bharati at Santiniketan, West Bengal, India.

While at Patha Bhavana, he took lessons in Esraj and taught himself to play keyboard and guitar.

He was also exposed to a wide range of musical styles, ranging from western music to the local baul traditions, and started composing music with his friends at this time.

After completing high school education, Arnob enrolled at Visva Bharati University in 1995 to study at the Fine Arts Academy (Kala Bhavana).

In 1998, when he was a fourth-year student, he formed an indie folk fusion band named Bangla.

His family friend Anusheh Anadil learned about his project while visiting Shantiniketan and joined the band as a vocalist.

Anusheh brought in bassist Buno, who had prior experience in folk fusion.

With the new lineup, the band had their first performance at the Kolkata Book Fair in January 1999.

Arnob returned to Dhaka in 1999.

The same year, instrumentalists Kartik, Shantunu and Nazrul joined Bangla.

The band had their first formal concert at the Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka in October 1999.

Arnob was the founding member of the indie folk band Bangla which stayed active for a decade before going into hiatus in the late 2000s.

Arnob continued performing with some of the band members as Arnob and Friends.

He also briefly collaborated with Prayer Hall, a Bangladeshi band.

In 2002, Bangla took part in "the Benson and Hedges Star Search" competition, and Arnob received the Award for Best Instrumentalist for playing esraj.

The same year, Bangla released its debut album, Kingkortobbobimurho.

Arnob gained nationwide recognition as a solo artist for his title track She Je Boshe Ache for the 2004 TV drama Offbeat.

In 2004, his first solo song, 'She Je Boshe Ache', was released as the title track of the teleplay-off Beat, which started at 36:55 of the teleplay.

In the fall of 2004, Arnob signed a contract with Ektaar for one year.

The song also appeared in his first solo album Chaina Bhabish, released in 2005.

He started the recording of his debut album, Chaina Bhabish, in March 2005 in the EML studio in Gulshan, Dhaka.

It ended in May, and the album was released on June 1, 2005.

Two songs in the album were written by Arnob, "She Je Boshe Ache" and "Chuya Chuyi".

His next album, Hok Kolorob, was recorded in 2005 in a BMC studio and mostly contained songs by Taufiqe Riaz.

One track on this album, "Tomar Jonno" was written by Sahana Bajpaie and composed by Arnob.

The self-titled song "Hok Kolorob" was called by many a protest song.

Arnob began 2006 by signing with a new label, Bengal Music Company.

This album was followed by his two notable solo albums Hok Kolorob and Doob, cementing his position as a prominent musician in Bangladesh. In 2009, Arnob released his first live album Arnob & Friends Live, which featured songs from his international tour in October 2008.

, Arnob released seven solo albums, and composed film scores for several notable Bengali language films, which include Monpura, Jaago, Aynabaji and Under Construction.

In 2022, Arnob produced the inaugural season of Coke Studio Bangla, the Bangladeshi incarnation of the Coke Studio franchise.

However, in a 2014 interview to a Bangladeshi magazine, he confessed:"I never thought I would take music as a profession! Even at school, I was the worst in music."

It was used as a slogan in the 2014 Jadavpur University Students movement.

About that, he said to the Indian Express: "My politics is a gut reaction, guided by practicality rather than ideology. I don’t consider myself to be a political person; I couldn’t say if I am right-wing or left-wing. Things have to make sense for me to throw my weight behind it".