Joi Barua

Joi Barua

Joi Barua, 2010
Background information
Birth name Jayanta Barua
Born Digboi, Assam, India
Genres Rock, soul, worldbeat
Occupation(s) Vocalist, musician
Instruments Vocals, guitar, violin, keyboards
Labels Various
Associated acts Joi

Joi Barua (Assamese: জয় বৰুৱা) is an Indian singer and music composer. Born in Digboi, Assam, he started his career by singing advertising jingles and later did playback singing for Hindi, Assamese and Telugu films. He is also the lead vocalist of the band Joi.[1] Barua has a mixed musical style incorporating elements of rock, soul, jazz, folk and world music.[2]

Early life

Joi was born in Digboi, Assam, the younger of the two children to Ranjana Barua and Rohini Dhar Barua. His father gave him a violin when he was four years old and that triggered his lifelong passion for music. His family moved to Jorhat when he was in junior school. When he was seven years old, his sister pushed him to join a singing competition and taught him the popular Cliff Richard song 'Bachelor Boy'. Even though ignorant about singing at that age, he won the competition. It was a defining moment. His school principal, Sister Mabilia, understood his passion for music and since then she never missed an opportunity to encourage him into singing and taking part in stage acts. Her favourite was the Boney M song 'El Lute' -about a man wrongly imprisoned for a crime he did not commit- which he would often sing to her. He considers her as his first guru in life and a constant source of inspiration. At home, he and his cousin Piku would sing songs of The Beatles, The Eagles, Simon and Garfunkel, U2, etc. He passed out his high school from St. Anthony's College, Shillong, and later attended Gauhati Commerce College for graduation.

His personal inspirations include his father, who always encouraged him to take music out of classrooms into the hearts of people, and his ex-principal Sister Mabilia who guided his passion for music. His musical influences have been varied. It includes Sting, The Beatles, The Eagles, Iron Maiden, The Police, Ozzy Osbourne, Joe Satriani, Eric Clapton, U2, etc. Classical Composers like Beethoven, Rossini, Vivaldi and Mozart, and Indians musicians like L. Subramaniam, A.R. Rahman, Salil Chowdhury, Ilaiyaraaja, Bhupen Hazarika and Jayanta Hazarika also influenced him a lot.

Career

Barua started his career by singing jingles for several advertising campaigns including Fiat Linea, Vodafone, Reliance, LG, Hero Honda, Nescafe, Club Mahindra, Yatra.com etc. Before starting playback singing, he worked as background singers for several Bollywood films in early 2000s. His notable playback singing for Hindi films include Dev.D, Udaan, Luv Ka The End, Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. In 2010, he recorded two songs for Telugu film Kalavar King.

The band Joi, from left Pawan Rasaily, Joi Barua, Abani Tanti, Ibson Lal Baruah and Manas Chowdhary.

Barua, along with his band mates of Joi, launched the album titled Joi: Looking out of the Window on 21 December 2010. The album contains 8 tracks and all of them features vocals of Barua. The songs are a blend of rock, soul, folk and worldbeat. The band also released the first music video filmed on Aikon Baaikon, a track from the album. Apart from Barua, the band members are Pawan Rasaily (lead guitar), Ibson Lal Baruah (rhythm guitar), Manas Chowdhary (bass guitar) and Partho Goswami (drums).

In 2011, he sang the Assamese song "Khiriki" for Hengool Theatre. In June 2013, Joi and his band released an Assamese single, Pitol Soku from the documentary Riders of the Mist. The documentary features the bareback jockeys of Jorhat and Sivasagar districts of the Assam and the song pays an homage to them. A blend of Rock and Worldbeat, the song and its promotional video was unveiled by John Abraham and Vishal Dadlani.[3]

In 2014, he collaborated with Shruti Haasan and composed a Assamese-Tamil fusion song titled Prithibi Ghure, and performed together in an INKtalks live event. The Tamil lyrics was penned by Kamal Haasan, while the Assamese lyrics were written by Ibson Lal Baruah.[4]

In 2015, Barua composed the track Dusokute for the film Margarita With A Straw.[5][6] Joi is currently composing the songs & scoring background music for a movie produced by John Abraham through John Abraham Entertainment Private Limited.[7] Scheduled to release in 2015, the movie is tentatively titled 'Banana' and is Directed by Sajid Ali.[8]

Personal life

He is married to Nayana Borthakur (since 2002), whom he met in college.

Awards and recognitions

Joi was awarded the Best Debut Award (2010) for his album Joi- Looking Out of the Window at the Big Music Awards organised by Big 92.7 FM, Guwahati.

He was invited as a Fellow at the first INK Conference in 2010, a TED affiliated multidisciplinary conference, and as an INK Speaker in 2011.

Discography

Year Film / Album Song Language Composer(s) Co-singer(s)
2003 Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. "Dekhle Aankhon Mein Aankhien Daal (Remix)" Hindi Anu Malik Sunidhi Chauhan
2008 Jumbo "Dil Mera Jumbo" Hindi Ram Sampath Solo
2009 Dev.D "Ek Hulchul Si" Hindi Amit Trivedi Solo
Chal Chala Chal "Aplam Chaplam" Hindi Anu Malik Sunidhi Chauhan
2010 Kalavar King "Eidhe Eidhe" Telugu Anil R Solo
"Veede" Solo
Udaan "Kahaani (Aankhon Ke Pardon Pe)" Hindi Amit Trivedi Neuman Pinto
Help "Kehna Hai" Hindi Ashutosh Phatak Suzanne D'Mello
Joi: Looking out of the Window 8 tracks Assamese Joi Barua Solo
2011 No One Killed Jessica "Dua" Hindi Amit Trivedi Meenal Jain, Raman Mahadevan, Amitabh Bhattacharya
Luv Ka The End "Freak Out" Hindi Ram Sampath Aditi Singh Sharma
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara "Dil Dhadakne Do" Hindi Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy Shankar Mahadevan, Suraj Jagan
Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge "Baatein Shuru" Hindi Raghu Dixit Shefali Alvaris
Hengool 2011-12 "Khiriki" Assamese Anurag Saikia Solo
"Khiriki (Unplugged)" Solo
2012 Agent Vinod "Raabta (Siyaah Raatein)" Hindi Pritam Hamsika Iyer, Arijit Singh
"Raabta Unplugged" Arijit Singh
2013 I Don't Luv U "Kuchh Hone Ko Hai" Hindi Aman-Benson Raman Mahadevan
Riders of the Mist "Pitol Soku" Assamese Joi Barua Solo
2015 Margarita with a Straw "Dusokute" Hindi Joi Barua Solo
Marksheet "Pagol Uxaah" Assamese Joi Barua Solo
2016 Pride[9] "Rabha" Assamese Joi Barua George Brooks (released as single)

References

  1. ↑ "Candid Conversation With Joi Barua". EF News International. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  2. ↑ "YouTube". YouTube. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  3. ↑ "John launches Joi Barua's new single and music video 'Pitol Soku' – IndianMusicMug". Indianmusicmug.com. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  4. ↑ "Shruti Hassan and Joi Barua join hands". The Times of India. TNN. 27 March 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  5. ↑ IMDB - Music Department, Margarita With A Straw
  6. ↑ Bollyspice.com - Joi Barua composes for Margarita With A Straw
  7. ↑ IMDB IMDB Singer Joi Barua to compose music for John Abraham’s film Banana
  8. ↑ Sajid Ali, Imtiaz Alis youngest brother to make Banana for John Abraham
  9. ↑ "Indian and American musicians collaborate for a song on Assamese icon". NewsX. IANS. 15 January 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2016.

External links

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