“Jai Ho!” (You Are My Destiny) “debuted on DesiHits and was released as a digital download on February 23, 2009, the day after AR Rahman won the awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Soundtrack at the 2009 Oscar for” Jai Ho ” which was the soundtrack for Slumdog Millionaire. Stephanie Nolen of The Globe and Mail wrote that the lyrics are “more racist than the original Hindi words by the Indian poet Gulzar.” Scherzinger’s version replaces the Hindi words in the original song with English lyrics, including the chorus: “You are the reason I breathe / You are the reason I still believe / You are my destiny / Jai ho”. The song was recorded in London, while Scherzinger and Rahman spoke via webcam. Scherzinger, Fair, Dean, Bogart, Erika Nuri, David Quiñones, Candace Thorbourne, Nailah Thorbourne and Nyanda Thorbourne are credited for writing the track, while their production was handled by Fair and Scherzinger. Bogart further stated that it was “a very original and strange way of writing a song”. Kidd Bogart, a member of The Writing Camp, stated that: “They wanted to get a bunch of different versions to see who could create a version for the Pussycat Dolls.” Once all the interpretations were completed, “they took parts of The Writing Camp, parts of Ester Dean’s version, and parts of another version, and put them together, and then Nicole and Ron filled in the blanks they thought were missing “. Love and destiny were elements of the film that put on the track” She stated that “she prayed every night to make it right.Į. Scherzinger put “heart to write the lyrics and put themes from the film Slumdog Millionaire“.
Scherzinger hesitated at first, saying in an interview that: “ I was afraid to sing it afraid that people would listen to it before I even wrote it”. After Fair and Iovine were successful in getting a green light from Rahman, they asked Scherzinger, the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, to write an interpretation of the song. So, this is a way of people get new songs from us and people who haven’t bought the album so far to give our music a chance ”Īfter watching Slumdog Millionaire, record executives Jimmy Iovine and Ron Fair wanted to turn “Jai Ho” into a “pop without deviating from the original melody”. In this industry today, this is what we are trying to do, always put new music and get people to pay attention. In the interview, she said: “It is a new life, a new push for Doll Domination. Subsequently, Scherzinger confirmed that the current album would be relaunched with new songs. In early 2009, Billboard magazine said that Doll Domination had no commercial impact on the Billboard 200, unlike the group’s previous album, PCD, which sold 3 million copies in the United States. Scherzinger on the “Jai Ho!” Writing process.
task of rewriting the lyrics, because I thought the film was very deep, I didn’t know how to maintain the integrity of the film and the love story, but also make it cool enough for the Pussycat Dolls and people around the world to connect.
“It’s crazy how the whole thing came about, I’m a writer, and I was lucky enough to write for the Dolls, but when I was asked to see the movie and make my own version, I was really scared to take over. The Pussycat Dolls sang “Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)” during various performances at including Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and an episode of One Life to Live. It was also sung on The Official BBC Children in Need Medley, which led the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in late 2009. The video clip was filmed in Vienna, Austria, at a Tram Museum, recreating the last scene of the film Slumdog Millionaire, In the United Kingdom, the English version of the song was sung by several British children’s voice actors during the Children’s promotional video. Internationally, the song was very well positioned, leading the charts in countries like Australia, Finland, Israel and Ireland, as well as peaking in the top ten in countries like New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The following week, it reached number 15, experiencing one of the biggest upward movements on the chart. On the Billboard Hot 100, the song debuted at number 100. “Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)” was commercially successful. The song was credited as “AR Rahman and The Pussycat Dolls featuring Nicole Scherzinger”.Īfter its release, the song received positive reviews from music critics, praising it as a great adaptation.
After watching Slumdog Millionaire executives Jimmy Iovine and Ron Fair they wanted to transform “Jai Ho” into a “pop without deviating from the original melody” and asked Scherzinger to make his own interpretation of the song. It was released on Februby Interscope Records as the fourth single from the album. ” Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny) ” (in Portuguese : Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny) ) is a song recorded by the American girl group The Pussycat Dolls extracted from their second studio album Doll Domination (2008).