Happy Raikotiਹੈਪੀ ਰਾਏਕੋਟੀ

Happy Raikoti is a Punjabi singer, lyricist and actor from Raikot in Ludhiana district, who took his stage name from his home town and built two careers at once. As a lyricist he wrote Bapu Zimidar for Jassie Gill, Dairy for Amrinder Gill and Sohnea for Miss Pooja, and won the PTC award for the Ardaas song Daata Ji; as a singer he made his name with Jaan and Main Tan Vi Pyar Karda. Few writers in modern Punjabi music have put words into so many other stars' mouths while keeping a singing career of his own.

The boy from Raikot

He comes from Raikot, the old town in Ludhiana district founded by the Rai family, and the town simply became his surname on stage. He was schooled at the Government Elementary School in Raikot and later graduated from DAV College in Jagraon. Music arrived early: still at school, in the seventh standard, he sang Harbhajan Maan's Asa Nu Maan Watna Da in front of teachers and students, and the praise that followed told him where his life was pointing. The singers he grew up admiring, Kuldeep Manak, Amar Singh Chamkila and Gurdas Maan, were all storytellers first, and that order of priorities never left his writing.

First the words: a lyricist for hire

Happy Raikoti started as a lyricist. His first song, Tere Thumke Nachayi Jande, sung by Roshan Prince in 2013, made little noise, but the work that followed in 2014 could not be ignored: Vehaam for Roshan Prince, Dairy for Amrinder Gill's album Judaa 2, Gunday Returns for Dilpreet Dhillon, and above all Bapu Zimidar for Jassie Gill, a song about a farmer's pride that became an anthem far beyond Punjab. Gippy Grewal, Maninder Buttar and Miss Pooja all recorded his words, and by the middle of the decade producers were coming to Raikot for lyrics the way they once went to the poets.

Jaan and 7 Knaalan: the singer arrives

In 2014 he stepped to the microphone himself with Jaan, music by Laddi Gill, and the single's success turned the lyricist into a singer. A year later came the album 7 Knaalan, then a steady run of singles that showed his range: the romantic Main Tan Vi Pyar Karda, the brooding Pagal, Crazy Demands, Mutiyaar and Top Top, and later the reflective Zinda and Maa Da Dil. His own songs carry the same plainspoken writing as his lyrics for others, and audiences heard the connection at once: this was the man behind the words, singing them the way he had heard them first.

An award for Ardaas, and the film years

Film work ran alongside the singles. Happy Raikoti wrote lyrics for a long list of Punjabi films, among them Angrej, Ardaas, Ambarsariya, Love Punjab, Manje Bistre, Nikka Zaildar, Shadaa, Ardaas Karaan and Puaada, and crossed into Hindi cinema with Sardar Ka Grandson. At the 2016 PTC Punjabi Music Awards he won Best Lyricist for Daata Ji, his prayer-like song from Ardaas, an honour that fixed his standing as a writer of weight and not only of hits. He acted too, appearing in Teshan and Motor Mitraan Di in 2016, Darra, and the war film Subedar Joginder Singh.

Alongside the film work, the singles kept coming, and they showed the range of the same pen: the devotional Wahguru, the romantic Pyaar Kari Jaane O and the reflective Zamaana sit comfortably beside the wedding songs, proof that the lyricist who wrote for the dance floor could also write for the quiet room.

Why does Happy Raikoti write for so many other singers?

Because that is where he began, and because he has said in effect that a good song belongs to the voice that can carry it furthest. His catalogue as a lyricist reads like a roll call of the industry: Jassie Gill's Laden and Bapu Zimidar, Ammy Virk's Double Cross and Taare Baliye, Nimrat Khaira's Designer, Millind Gaba's Main Teri Ho Gayi Aa, Diljit Dosanjh's Taare and Afsana Khan's Tere Laare. Writing for others kept his pen in every corner of the market, and each hit for another singer sent listeners back to the songs he sang himself.

The Raikot name

Later singles such as Zamaana, Wahguru and Pyaar Kari Jaane O kept him current into the 2020s, and his songs for farmers and mothers gave him a standing beyond the charts: this is a writer rooted in the Malwa countryside he came from. Many Punjabi artists take a village or town name onto the stage, but few have worn it as completely as the lyricist from Raikot, whose home town is now known across the diaspora simply because he refused to leave it out of his name.