Indian pop star Armaan Malik, Korean-American artist Eric Nam and Indian-American producer and DJ KSHMR have united to collaborate on a brand new track titled “Echo.” ‘ECHO’ the brand-new track is written by three co-writers namely, Armaan Malik, Eric Nam and KSHMR, and produced by KSHMR is to be released on 21st May, 2021. ‘Echo’ is described as “the first K-pop meets I-pop collaboration built around a meticulously crafted EDM soundscape,” “Echo” is set to drop on May 21st at midnight local time for each of the artists’ respective countries (India, America and South Korea) and is also the artists’ way of celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The music video will premiere at 12:30 PM IST (4 PM KST/12 AM PST.)
This is Malik’s fourth single, prior this, the famous actor-singer also known as ‘Prince of Romance’ has released ‘Control’, ‘Next 2 Me’ and ‘Aaja Na Ferrari Mein’. Eric Nam is an American singer, songwriter and television host of Korean descent. He was named “2016 Man of The Year” by GQ Korea, honored “30 Under 30 Asia 2017” by Forbes and YouTube Music’s Global Trending “Artist on the Rise.” And, Niles Hollowell-Dhar, better known by his stage name Kshmr (pronounced ‘Kashmir’ and stylized as KSHMR) is an Indian-American musician, songwriter, record producer, and DJ. He was ranked 23rd on DJ Mag’s 2015 Top 100 DJs poll and was awarded highest new entry for the year.
However, it was found that the claim is misleading and the Rajasthan government has allocated Rs 100 crore in its annual budget for a project involving religious places of all faiths and not just Islam. In the 2021-22 budget, the Rajasthan government has allocated Rs. 100 crores for development of religious tourist circuit connecting places of worship of Sikhs, Jains, Hindus, and Muslims in order to develop ‘Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava’. On the Budget document at point number 213 on page 74 and 75, it clearly states that Rs 100 crore had been allocated to the Religious Tourism Circuit project, which aims to connect major religious places of worship of all faiths. Among the list of places Tanha peer dargah is also mentioned that is in the ad, with several other prominent places of worship of Sikh, Jains, Hindus and Muslims as marked in red. Also, the Rs. 100 crores allocated to this initiative will be spent for developing connectivity and other areas concerning the places of worship of the four religions. From this, it is evident Rajasthan government’s allocation of Rs. 100 crores for developing a religious circuit by connecting religious places of four different religions is misconstrued as the government allocating Rs. 100 crores just to develop a dargah.
This ad was published on 12th March in the Rajasthan Patrika, and the claim was spread as a fallacious context by a social media user and no solid ground whatsoever.
KSHMR, also hopes that “Echo” and the successful careers of all three musicians will inspire young Asian artists to begin their careers earlier and pursue their passions without fear. “What internally needs to change?” he questions. “Because the house that I grew up in was really hard on formal education, and when I didn’t want to go to college and wanted to pursue music, they sent me to India with no return ticket. My grandpa was going to beat it into my head that music was a hobby…[Grammys, international recognition] is all there for the taking, it’s just we’ve been going to Google, we’ve been going to the doctor positions. As great as that is, it left someone like me feeling like a square trying to fit in a circle.”
Also, on 21st May, global K-pop sensation and the Grammy nominated group BTS’s new summer track will drop at midnight. ‘Butter’ is the group’s second English-language single following ‘Dynamite’ that released last August to record-smashing numbers. The excitement is extremely overwhelming!
