MUMBAI: Today, pop stars are mostly ‘created’ by labels or talent management companies. It takes more than the talent to hit the perfect note every time to become a global pop star.
With her first single ‘In My City’- a peppy club track off her yet to be completed debut album released on 13 September, Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra’s labels- Universal Music and Desi Hits, and talent management team are pulling out all stops to transform her into a global pop star.
In India, Universal is making available the song across all its 1,000 stores nationwide as opposed to 55 stores for other artists. It has also tied up with Nokia’s online music store which will have the single exclusively for two weeks. Nokia’s online store sees four songs downloaded every second.
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Premier liquor brand Blender’s Pride is also using the club track as root song for its ongoing Blenders Pride Fashion tour.
Internationally, Chopra’s labels and management team have also managed to insert 90 seconds of the song at the start of the US’ National Football League (NFL) to give her an international platform to leverage on.
In addition to roping one of the industry’s top producers- Red One- who has produced for artists like Lady Gaga and Enrique Iglesias for Chopra, Universal will shoot the video of In My City in Los Angeles to complete the globalization of the song.
She and her single/ album will be given the same priority as Lady Gaga and Enimem as far as global promotions go.
“There’s a lot more than talent needed to truly break out globally. You need to know people- that’s where Priyanka scores. It’s very rare that an unknown talent cracks the international scene. We have a saying in India that you have to go double platinum before you crack the global scene,” Universal Music India & SAARC MD Devraj Sanyal said.
To cover the bases, Chopra’s album will have a number of international artists collaborating with her. In My City features Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am. Like any artist on the global pop circuit, Chopra will also have to tour extensively to promote her new album.
“In cross-cultural projects finding that perfect blend of East and West is not easy, but Priyanka has worked so hard. We have no intention of taking Priyanka out of India but bring the rest of the world to India. Priyanka is ‘A’ class and she has an ‘A’ class team,” Acharia-Bath said.
