If there’s a viral song going around, could Jason Derulo be far behind?
The hitmaker, known for tracks such as Trumpets and Whatcha Say, as well as last year's viral TikTok song Savage Love, has now added his name to another popular number.
Derulo has recorded a new version of Jalebi Baby, the Punjabi-English song that became all the rage on TikTok last year, with more than 3.1 million creations on the social media app.
Named after a dessert popular in South Asia, the original song, by Canadian rapper and producer Tesher, has been streamed more than 100 million times and spent more than 24 weeks atop the Official Charts’ Asian Music Top 40.
Tesher announced the collaboration with Deluro last month, telling fans they were “about to hear Hindi and Punjabi lyrics on Top 40 radio all over the world”.
“I can tell you the 2021 song of the summer is literally about an Indian sweet. And that's got to count for something,” he posted on Instagram.
Derulo has also been promoting the song, creating videos with it on TikTok, where he has more than 46 million followers.
On Wednesday, he posted a video of himself making and enjoying jalebis.
Who is Tesher?
Born Hitesh Sharma in Saskatchewan, Canada, to Indian parents from Punjab, the self-taught DJ’s love for music began when he accompanied his videographer father to Indian events and weddings as a young boy.
"My dad is extremely involved in the community and he decided to do videography for all these events. That eventually branched out to people asking him if he provides any DJ services. His reply was, 'No I don't, but I have a 11-year-old son who really likes computers and music.' That's how I started DJing and that was the start of it all," he told Man's World magazine.
Hip-hop fan Tesher, 25, then began to fuse that genre with Bollywood music, creating his signature sound.
His first taste of online fame came in 2019 thanks to his remix of Lil Nas X's record-breaking Old Town Road, with which he blended Bollywood song Ramta Jogi, from the 1999 film Taal.
The tune was widely shared on TikTok, with more than 488,000 creations, and now boasts more than three million streams on YouTube.
Encouraged by the success, Tesher released his first original composition, Young Shah Rukh, in February last year, inspired by King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan.
The song also samples a tune, Bole Chudiyan, from Khan's 2001 hit Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham ...
It soon caught the attention of Sony Music India, who decided to release it on their label.
But it's Jalebi Baby, which he released a few months later, that would take Tesher truly global. Entering charts around the world as well as gaining popularity online, the song has been streamed more than 11 million times on Spotify, 28 million times on YouTube and is No 4 globally on Shazam, according to Tesher.
And now it has the backing, and vocals, of Derulo, the most-followed artist on TikTok and the 12th most-followed overall on the platform.
"From day one, my biggest goal was always to bring South Asian sounds into the mainstream in a big way,” Tesher says in his post when he announced the Derulo collaboration.
“In a way that could push our culture forward and spotlight us authentically, free from stereotypes and overused tropes. Something that celebrated us, and that we could all be proud of.”
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
