Gursharanjot Singh Randhawa born 30 August 1991 is an Indian singer, songwriter and music composer associated with Punjabi, Bhangra, Indi-pop and Bollywood music. He is known for songs like “Lahore”, “Patola”, “High Rated Gabru”, “Daaru Wargi”, “Raat Kamal Hai”, “Suit”, “Ban Ja Rani”, “Made in India”, “Ishare Tere”, “Tere Te”, “Fashion”, “Downtown” and “Slowly Slowly”, “Surma Surma”, “Baby Girl” , “Naach Meri Rani” , “Mehendi Wale Haath” . Guru Randhawa’s debut single was “Same girl” in collaboration with Arjun.
Biography
Randhawa was born as Gursharanjot Singh Randhawa in Nurpur on 30 August 1991, Dera Baba Nanak tehsil in Gurdaspur district. He started by doing small shows in Gurdaspur and then began performing in Delhi, at small parties and functions. While staying in Delhi, Randhawa completed his MBA. He was named “Guru” by the rapper Bohemia who would shorten his full name while on stage.
Career
2012–2014: Beginnings
Randhawa started his music journey in December 2012 with a song named “Same Girl” with Arjun who was the first person to take Randhawa in his own video. However, the song was not so successful for both the artists. In the beginning of 2013, Randhawa released his first single named “Chhad Gayi” on YouTube with the label of Speed Records. His elder brother, Ramneek helped him financially to release this song. Later in 2013, Guru launched his first album Page One and released three songs from the album. “Dardan Nu”, “I Like You” and “Southall” were the respective songs. Randhawa launched many songs but none of them became much popular to take Guru on heights. 2014 was also not special for him. He released the remaining songs from the Page One album but did not got success.The songs were “Khali Bottlan”, “My Jugni”, “Maa”, “Na Na Na Na Na”, “Pyaar Wale Test”, “Modern Thumka”, and “Billo On Fire”.
2015–2016: Popular in cultures
Bohemia, who was a well-wisher of Guru, requested T-Series to launch the young artist on their channel. Then they collaborated together in the song “Patola”.This song is regarded as the turning point in Guru’s life as it was one of the most remarkable songs by Randhawa and gathered more than 368 Million views across YouTube. “Patola” also got the award for best Punjabi Duo. Further he sang with Ikka Singh in the songs “Outfit” and “Khat”. Both the songs were loved by the fans of both the artists. In 2016, Randhawa gave four blockbuster songs.He released “Yaar Mod Do” with Millind Gaba again on the label T-Series in January. The motive of the project was to show true friendship and it did and collected more than 227 million YouTube views. In the month of April, Randhawa dropped the super hit song “Tu Meri Rani” on his own YouTube channel. This song also featured the rapper, Haji Springer. One of his most popular songs, “Suit” was released in 2016. It was Guru’s second collaboration with Arjun. It became a blockbuster and currently holds 441 million views on YouTube. In September, he collaborated with Rajat Nagpal and released a song named Fashion on T-Series. The song gave a great response that time and holds more than 203 million views on YouTube currently.
2017–present
In 2017, Randhawa released an emotional track named “Taare” in January. The track performed average on YouTube but this song’s video was trolled to be a copy of Zayn Malik’s song “It’s You”. Randhawa made his bollywood singing debut in the Indian movie Hindi Medium. His foot tapping track “Suit” was recreated in the film as “Suit Suit”. He sang in the 2017 Indian Premier League opening ceremony. Later in 2017, his two tracks appeared in bollywood movies. His old track “Tu Meri Rani” was recreated in the Hindi film Tumhari Sulu and an original track named “Lagdi Hai Thaai” was also released in the movie Simran in collaboration with Jonita Gandhi. His two most-viewed songs, “High Rated Gabru” and “Lahore”, have over 1,025 and 929 million views on T-Series’ official YouTube channel respectively. In 2018 “Lahore” won Track of the Year at the Brit Asia TV Music Awards, where Randhawa also won Best Male Act. His first international collaboration was “Slowly Slowly” featuring Pitbull, released on 19 April 2019. The song’s music video received 38 million views on YouTube within 24 hours, becoming one of the world’s all-time most-viewed music videos in 24 hours.
In 2019, Randhawa turned producer with Punjabi language film Tara Mira starring Ranjit Bawa and Nazia Hussan, directed by Rajiev Dhingra. In 2020, Guru made his second international collaboration “Surma Surma” with British artist Jay Sean. In the year 2020, Guru’s old track “Lahore” was presented as “Lagdi Lahore Di” in the movie ‘Street Dancer 3D’ in collaboration with Sachin-Jigar and Tulsi Kumar. Later, he collaborated with Vee Music and international singer and songwriter Jay Sean in the song “Surma Surma”. During the Corona pandemic, he released a soothing track named ‘Satnam Waheguru’ with Vee. He was also featured by Pitbull in a music video named “Mueve La Cintura” with Tito El’ Bambino. This was his second collab with Pitbull.Guru Randhawa’s popularity rose immensely after his Bollywood Debut in the film Hindi Medium and release of the pop Ballad Lahore in 2018. Rolling stone India stated that ,”If you’ve missed him on the Charts, you’ve heard him on the radio”.
Discography
Singles
| Year | Song | Featured artist(s) | Composer(s) | Writer(s) | Language(s) | Ref |
| 2013 | “AK 47” | Kuwar Virk | Kuwar Virk | Guru Randhawa | Hindi / Punjabi | |
| 2012 | “Same Girl” | Arjun | Preet Hundal | Guru Randhawa | ||
| 2013 | “Chhad Gayi” | Solo | Guru Randhawa | |||
| “Dardan Nu”, Album – Page One | ||||||
| “Southall”, Album – Page One | Paivy | |||||
| “I Like You” | Guru Randhawa, Paivy | |||||
| 2015 | “Patola” | Bohemia | Preet Hundal | Guru Randhawa, Sabi | ||
| “Outfit” | Guru Randhawa | Ikka | ||||
| “Khat” | Ikka | Intense | ||||
| 2016 | “Fashion” | Solo | Rajat Nagpal | Guru Randhawa | ||
| “Yaar Mod Do” | Millind Gaba | Millind Gaba | Guru Randhawa, Millind Gaba | |||
| “Tu Meri Rani” | Rap- Haji Springer | Haji Springer | ||||
| 2017 | “Taare” | Solo | Rajat Nagpal | Guru Randhawa | ||
| “Suit” | Arjun | Intense | Guru Randhawa, Arjun | |||
| “High Rated Gabru” | Solo | Guru Randhawa, Manj Musik | Guru Randhawa | |||
| “Lahore” | Guru Randhawa, Vee Music | |||||
| 2018 | “Raat Kamaal Hai” | Tulsi Kumar | Guru Randhawa | |||
| “Made in India” | Solo | |||||
| “Ishare Tere” | Dhvani Bhanushali | |||||
| “Aaja Ni Aaja” | Solo | |||||
| “Downtown” | ||||||
| “Golimaar” | Guru Randhawa, Vee | |||||
| “Tere Te” | Ikka (rap) | Vee | Ikka | |||
| 2019 | “Slowly Slowly” | Pitbull | RedOne, DJ Shadow Dubai | Guru Randhawa, Pitbull | Punjabi / English/ Spanish/ Hindi | |
| “Sajan Rus Jave Tan” | Solo | Guru Randhawa, DJ Shadow Dubai | Guru Randhawa | Punjabi | ||
| “Ishq Tera” | Solo | Guru Randhawa | Guru Randhawa | Hindi / Punjabi | ||
| “Mueve La Cintura” | Pitbull and Tito El Bambino | Pitbull | Pitbull, Guru Randhawa | English/Hindi/ Spanish/ Punjabi | ||
| “Black” | Guru Randhawa | Bunty Bains | Bunty Bains | Hindi/Punjabi | ||
| “Yaari” | Vee Music | Guru Randhawa | Guru Randhawa | Hindi/Punjabi | ||
| 2020 | “Surma Surma” | Jay Sean | Vee Music | Guru Randhawa & Jay Sean | Hindi/Punjabi/English | |
| “Satnam Waheguru” | Solo | Vee Music | Guru Randhawa | Punjabi | ||
| “Teri Gali” | Barbie Maan | Vee Music | Guru Randhawa | Punjabi | ||
| “Baby Girl” | Dhvani Bhanushali | Guru Randhawa | Guru Randhawa | Hindi/Punjabi | ||
| “Naach Meri Rani” | Nora Fatehi (voiced by Nikhita Gandhi) | Tanishk Bagchi | Tanishk Bagchi | Hindi/Punjabi | ||
| 2021 | “Mehendi Wale Haath” | Sanjana Sanghi | Sachet-Parampara | Sayeed Quadri | Hindi |
Film songs
| Denotes films that have not yet been released |
| Year | Song | Film | Co-singer(s) | Composer(s) | Writer(s) | Note | Ref |
| 2017 | “Suit Suit” | Hindi Medium | Arjun | Guru Randhawa, Arjun, Rajat Nagpal | Arjun, Guru Randhawa | Hindi film | |
| “Lagadi Hai Thaay” | Simran | Jonita Gandhi | Sachin-Jigar | Vayu | |||
| “Ban Ja Rani” | Tumhari Sulu | Solo | Guru Randhawa, Rajat Nagpal | Guru Randhawa | |||
| 2018 | “Kaun Nachdi” | Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety | Neeti Mohan | ||||
| “Nachle Na” | Dil Juunglee | ||||||
| “Patola” | Blackmail | Solo | Guru Randhawa | ||||
| “High Rated Gabru” | Nawabzaade | ||||||
| “High Rated Gabru (Female Version)” | Aditi Singh Sharma | ||||||
| “Aaja Ni Aaja” | Mar Gaye Oye Loko | Solo | Guru Randhawa, Kuwar Virk | Punjabi film | |||
| “Morni Banke” | Badhaai Ho | Neha Kakkar | Tanishk Bagchi | Mellow D | Hindi film | ||
| 2019 | “Daaru Wargi” | Why Cheat India | Solo | Guru Randhawa | Guru Randhawa | ||
| “Main Deewana Tera” | Arjun Patiala | Sachin-Jigar | |||||
| “Crazy Habibi Vs Decent Munda” | Benny Dayal | ||||||
| “Dil Todeya” | Diljit Dosanjh | Sachin-Jigar, Guru Randhawa | |||||
| “Enni Soni” | Saaho | Guru Randhawa, Tulsi Kumar | Guru Randhawa | Multilingual film | |||
| “Ekaantha Tharami” | Shakthisree Gopalan, Haricharan | Vinayak Sasikumar | Malayalam Dubbed version | ||||
| “Mazhaiyum Theeyam” | Madhan Karky | Tamil version | |||||
| “Ye Chota Nuvvunna” | Haricharan, Tulsi Kumar | Krishna Kanth | Telugu version; Multilingual | ||||
| “Outfit” | Ujda Chaman | Solo | Preet Hundal | Guru Randhawa | Hindi film | ||
| “Ik Gera” | Tara Mira | Solo | Guru Randhawa | Promotional song for Punjabi film | |||
| 2020 | “Lagdi Lahore Di” | Street Dancer 3D | Tulsi Kumar | Guru Randhawa & Sachin-Jigar | Hindi film | ||
| “Teri Choriyaan “ | Chhalaang | Payal Dev | Guru Randhawa | Hindi film |
Recreated songs
- Guru Randhawa’s Bollywood debut Suit Suit in the 2017 film Hindi Medium, was a remake of his and Arjun’s track.
- His song Tu Meri Rani was recreated by him and Rajat Nagpal for the 2017 film Tumhari Sulu as Ban Ja Rani.
- His song with Bohemia, Patola, was recreated by him as a wedding song in the 2018 film Blackmail.
- His most viewed song High Rated Gabru was recreated by him in the 2018 film Nawabzaade.
- His single Outfit was recreated by him and music producer Aditya Dev in the 2019 film Ujda Chaman.
- His popular track Lahore was recreated by him, in collaboration with Sachin-Jigar duo in the 2020 film Street Dancer 3D.
Additional- Punjabi MC’s song Morni Banke was recreated by Tanishk Bagchi in the voice of Guru and Neha Kakkar in the 2019 film Badhaai Ho.