Raghav Artistfacts

April 2, 1981
Raghav Mathur was born in Toronto, Ontario to parents originally from India. At a young age, Raghav moved with his family to Fort McMurray, Alberta and finally Calgary. By the time he was 16, Raghav had already won an award from the National Songwriter's Association of USA and that's when he decided he wanted to be a professional singer.
At age 17, Raghav moved to Los Angeles, California to train with Seth Riggs, a master vocal coach who's worked with some of the biggest artists in the world including Madonna, Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Josh Groban, and Stevie Wonder. He later moved to Liverpool, England to study at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.
Raghav is signed to Cordova Bay Records - a small label based in Victoria, British Columbia - but he funds his albums, music videos, and tours by himself. In 2012, the singer told us that he considers himself a "self-sustainable business" and although he'd like to sign to a major label one day, he knows there are both pros and cons to developing his career that way.
Raghav loves to share his knowledge of the music industry with others. He regularly talks to high school kids about the various jobs and challenges involved in a career in music and notes that "there are so many questions that kids have that aren't just creative." In 2012, Raghav spoke to kids at a school in Surrey, BC as well as at his former high school, Lester B. Pearson, in Calgary, Alberta.
Raghav loves social media and often uses Twitter to keep his fans in the loop about what he's up to. He once tweeted about hearing his own song "Top of the World" on the radio while he was riding in the back of a cab in Vancouver. When we asked Raghav if it was weird for him to hear his own songs on the radio, he responded: "It used to be really weird. But I will say it's very rewarding every time you hear it." (Here's our full interview with Raghav.)
Growing up, Raghav was heavily influenced by Michael Jackson. Since age 15, he's worked hard to write music with the same feeling and emotional impact that Jackson's songs had. Before his untimely passing in 2009, Jackson actually agreed to record a song called "Love" that Raghav had written, but the King of Pop didn't get a chance to lay down the recording before he died. Raghav decided to sing the song himself and include it on his 2012 album The Phoenix. He believes people will still connect with the track and says: "Hopefully people can appreciate that I've done a job on it that is worthy of the person who was about to get on the record."
In 2012, Raghav announced that he was working with legendary movie composer A.R. Rahman. The track would be included in a huge Bollywood movie due to be released in fall 2012. When we spoke with Raghav, he told us that the collaboration was "very exciting" and that he hoped it would "put me in a different realm as an artist than the one I'm in now."
Raghav is proud of his Hindi roots but he's taken steps to separate his English music from his Hindi music in recent years. In 2012, he told us that he still wanted to "make sure there is a fusion there" and that any future Hindi projects he does "have to be clever." Raghav doesn't want to pigeonhole himself by repeating the same songs and styles over and over again, saying: "I'm looking for a new facet, a new platform by which I can express my cross-culture kind of music fusion."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

More Songfacts:

Call Me MaybeCarly Rae Jepsen

"Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen was the song of the summer in 2012 and a major meme. It got some help from her fellow Canadian Justin Bieber, who tweeted that it was "possibly the catchiest song I've ever heard."

Only Wanna Be With YouHootie & the Blowfish

"Only Wanna Be With You" by Hootie & the Blowfish is a tribute to Bob Dylan, but Dylan sued them over it for using lyrics from his song "Idiot Wind."

We're Not Gonna Take ItTwisted Sister

Musically, the Twisted Sister song "We're Not Gonna Take It" is based on the Christmas tune "O Come All Ye Faithful."

Kiss The RainBillie Myers

Desmond Child thought Gavin Rossdale was singing "Kiss The Rain" on the Bush song "Glycerine." When he found out the truth, he wrote a song called "Kiss The Rain" for Billie Myers.