Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; March 5, 2020)

Yo Yo Honey Singh has been making millions worldwide groove to his numbers, right from Lungi Dance (Chennai Express; 2013), to his latest, Loca, which has managed to garner 19 million views just within a day of its release.

“I had made a Reggaeton beat for Loca, then an instrumental which was very Spanish-esque. Later, I discussed it with my team and decided to use the word ‘loca’ (which means insane). We penned it down, some crazy verses of rap and everything. It’s a collective lyrical product. The hook line is a girl singing to herself, ‘I am going loca for you boy’, and this was the feel of the song. The word sounds familiar to the Indian audience as well,” Singh says.

However, the musician doesn’t feel that the many party anthems he has churned out so far have prevented him from tapping into other music genres. “It isn’t as if people only remember my party anthems. I had songs like Brown Rang and Blue Eyes, which were love songs. Desi Kalakaar was not at all a party number. My biggest hit, Dheere Dheere, was a love ballad. Mujhe nahin lagta ki mujhe stereotype karna chahiye. I make every kind of music, and people like it. It isn’t as if the ‘rockstar’ image I have is only for my peppy songs,” says the 36-year-old.

Over the years, it would appear that the singer-composer-rapper has changed a lot — a far cry from his initial days when he was tagged a ‘wild rockstar’ because of the many controversies he’d find himself in. However, Singh feels he was always very calm. “Mujhe nahin lagta mere andar koi bhi change aaya hai. I was calm earlier too. I go wild only on stage and in front of cameras. But people who know me personally know I am a calm, cool man. Mere gaane wild hain, people go wild on them, and I have to act wild. It doesn’t mean I am a wild man. The artiste in me has always been shararti and wild, and it will be like that. I don’t think I’ve mellowed down, I was that way earlier too!” he adds.