Channi Singhਚੰਨੀ ਸਿੰਘ

Early life

Harcharanjit Singh Rupal was born in Salar village, Punjab, and grew up singing — as a schoolboy he would perform the film song 'Mera Man Dole' for a paisa at his teacher's request. He graduated from Government College, Malerkotla, and took an MA in English Literature at DAV College, Jalandhar, winning medals in singing, bhangra dancing and even wrestling. He learned classical music from Professor Baldev Narang and auditioned for Jalandhar radio and recording companies, but was rejected each time. In 1975 he moved to the UK.

The young Harcharanjit Singh Rupal was that rare thing: a scholar-athlete-musician. His MA in English Literature at DAV College Jalandhar sat alongside medals in singing, bhangra dancing and wrestling, and his classical training under Professor Baldev Narang was serious. But Punjab's music industry had no place for him — every audition at Jalandhar radio and the recording companies ended in rejection. The move to Britain in 1975 was, in part, an escape from those closed doors.

Career

In 1977 Channi founded Alaap with Harjeet Gandhi, Randhir Sahota and Inder Kalsi, starting out in temples and small functions. By fusing Western instruments with Punjabi folk, the band created the modern style that became UK bhangra. Their 1982 album Teri Chunni De Sitaray, released by Multitone, electrified Asian university students across Britain.

Alaap performed with UB40, played Madison Square Garden in New York, the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Al-Nasr Indoor Stadium in Dubai, and in 1992 became the first British-Asian band to perform in Pakistan. Channi composed music for Bollywood films including Yalgaar, Shaktimaan and Janasheen, became the first British Asian appointed an honorary Senior Lecturer of Music at Liverpool University, and in 2012 was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to bhangra music, charity and the community in Hounslow. In 2017 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Brit Asia TV Music Awards.

Alaap's genius was synthesis. Channi took the dhol and tumbi of Punjabi folk and set them alongside guitars, keyboards and drum kits, creating a sound that was neither purely Punjabi nor purely Western — it was British Asian. Starting in temples and small halls in 1977, the band's relentless gigging built a grassroots following that the 1982 album Teri Chunni De Sitaray turned into a movement among Asian students.

The big stages followed — UB40, the Royal Albert Hall, Madison Square Garden — but so did the institutional recognition: the BBC's lifetime achievement award, the honorary senior lectureship at Liverpool University, and finally the OBE in 2012. His film compositions for Bollywood showed a musician whose range extended well beyond the bhangra stage.

Major works

Teri Chunni De Sitaray (1982) is the landmark Alaap album; the band's live sets, famed for their rhythm section and Channi's white scarf, set the standard for UK bhangra performance.

Teri Chunni De Sitaray remains the defining Alaap record; the band's live reputation — Channi's white scarf, the thunderous rhythm section — became the template for UK bhangra performance.

Personal life

Channi lives in the UK with his wife Dhan; his daughter Mona Singh has also performed at the Royal Albert Hall. Co-founder Harjeet Gandhi died in 2003.

Channi lives in the UK with his wife Dhan. His daughter Mona has followed him onto the stage, including the Royal Albert Hall. The death of co-founder Harjeet Gandhi in 2003 was a heavy blow to the Alaap family.

Legacy

Called the 'godfather of bhangra in the West', Channi Singh took Punjabi music from weddings and temples to the world's great stages and gave British Asian youth a sound of their own. His OBE was the first major British honour for bhangra music.

Before Alaap, British bhangra barely existed as a recorded genre; after Alaap, it was an industry. Channi Singh didn't just make the music — he built the stage it played on, and the OBE recognised a lifetime of giving British Asian youth a culture to dance to.