Arjun

Arjun Kumaraswamy is a Sri Lankan -British singer and actor.

He was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka and raised in London.

He sings in English, Tamil, Sinhalese, Hindi, Punjabi, and Spanish.

Arjun rose to attention following an R&B cover version of the Tamil song "Why This Kolaveri Di" which was uploaded on YouTube in December 2011.

Arjun's R&B Remix ("How could you do this to me?") of "Why This Kolaveri Di" attracted over 3 million YouTube views in one month,

Arjun became known for his fusion of contemporary Western and Eastern sounds, combining R&B with elements of South Asian music.

Arjun was nominated for ‘Best Newcomer‘ at the ‘Brit Asia Music Awards 2011’.

In December 2011, his song ‘Stargazer’ was voted the number 2 song on the first ever Asian Video Chart on Kiss TV (No.1 was A.R Rahman's group ‘Super Heavy’, which included Mick Jagger & Joss Stone.)

In January 2012, Arjun was chosen as one of MTV's "Brand New" (the Top 20 Unsigned Acts) out of thousands of contestants.

Arjun won Best Urban Act at the 2012 UK Asian Music Awards.

In 2012 Arjun played the role of Luke Lewis in the new online drama "Steffi".

He was later chosen by Anirudh Ravichander to perform a song in the movie Vanakkam Chennai and subsequently sang and composed other songs for South Indian movies.

In August 2012, Arjun was selected to sing the official theme song for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 alongside Bathiya and Santhush.

He also produced music for the Sri Lankan Premier League, performing at the opening ceremony of the tournament held at Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo in August 2012.

In October 2012, Arjun won ‘Best Urban Act’ (in association with the MOBOs) at the UK Asian Music Awards 2012.

Then, in early 2013, Arjun did a live acoustic session on BBC Radio 1 and was later profiled by DJ's Fearne Cotton and Nihal on Fearne's Radio 1 show.

He was voted Eastern Eye Magazine's 'Male Artist of the Year' in 2013.

In July 2014, he performed at Rock Assembly in Wembley Arena, alongside Conor Maynard, Professor Green and Ella Eyre.

In July 2014 he also supported musician and singer Anirudh, composer of Why this Kolaveri Di, at Anirudh Live in Singapore.

In August 2014 he was a Guest of Honour and sang at the India Day Parade in New York City, the largest annual gathering of Indians in the US.

In September 2014, he performed at Diwali in Time Square, New York, to a crowd of over 200,000.

In October 2014, he appeared on the BBC Television programme, Blue Peter.

The same year, Arjun signed a record deal with T-Series, India's biggest music label.

‘I'll Be Waiting’, his first single with T-Series album charted at #1 on the iTunes India Chart.

Arjun again won Eastern Eye Artist of the Year in 2014.

In 2015 he supported Indian singer Arijit Singh at the Hard Rock Café in Dubai.

Arjun was awarded "Musical Artist of the Year" by Anokhi Media in 2016, North America's leading South Asian entertainment and lifestyle media and events company, based in Toronto.

In April 2016 he released the song "Suit" with Guru Randhawa which went on to win ‘Club Song of the Year’ at the PTC Awards in 2017 It was also voted ‘Punjabi Song of the Year’ on BBC Asian Network.

Arjun signed a record deal with Island Records, a branch of Universal Music, in September 2016 and released his first single with Island in October 2017 and his second single Vaadi in February 2018.

It was later featured in the Bollywood movie ‘Hindi Medium’ starring Irrfan Khan (released May 2017).

Vidya Vox collaborated with Arjun in 2017 for Joshua Tree for the original song, "Diamonds."

Arjun released his debut album with Island Records, “Closer to Home” on March 2, 2018; this reached No 1 on the iTunes R&B chart in 24 hours.

In March 2018, he featured in Humza Arshad's parody of the viral Nike advertisement, known as "Nothing Beats A Londoner", featuring notable Londoners from underrepresented minorities such as Juggy D, H-Dhami, Tasha Tah, Sevaqk, Bobby Friction, Raxstar, Tez Ilyas, Mumzy Stranger, Steel Banglez, Char Avell, Jay Sean, Corner Shop Show (Islah Abdur-Rahman, Michael Truong, Can Snatchy Kabadayi) and Naughty Boy.

In July 2018 he was one of the headliners at the Croydon London Mela, performing with the London Mozart Players, the longest-established chamber orchestra in the UK.

It was the first time the classical orchestra had accompanied an R&B/Hindi fusion artist.

In 2019, Arjun featured in the soundtrack of the Indian film "Gully Boy" on the song "Goriye", and also collaborated with Dutch artist First Man on the song "Soniyere".

In September 2019 Arjun headlined the London Mela, ending by singing Kabhi Jo Baadal as a tribute to his late wife Natasha, during which the audience held up their lit mobile phones as a mark of respect.

In October 2019, he was invited by the Federation of Indians in America and the Empire State Realty Trust to switch on the Diwali-themed lights which turned the iconic building orange to mark the city's celebration of the festival of Diwali.

2019 also saw Arjun carry out a 10-city tour of the US, and a 6-city tour of Australia plus Fiji.

He released the video “Tingo” with US desi artist Mickey Singh in September 2019.