Indian-origin British youngster aims to promote commercial western pop

Rika Darbari

This might come as news to many music buffs in the country, but an Indian-origin Londoner is creating a stir in the global pop industry. Her name is Chandrika Darbari, or Rika, as she calls herself. Last year, Rika burst into the charts with No Need, a straight-up western pop song punctuated with up-tempo beats. Music industry honchos sat up immediately. Here was a British-Asian singer who refused to be pigeonholed into the UK's desi music market. She's got the right sonic sensibilities to be moulded into the sort of musical product that makes for good business. It helps that she is easy on the eye. And, she's just 17.

The artiste with Ted Cockle while signing her contract

Eventually, Virgin EMI signed Rika on to their roster earlier this month. This made her the first Indian-origin singer to be signed on to a label that boasts the likes of Rihanna and Taylor Swift. "I feel that the head of Virgin EMI in the UK, Ted Cockle, has taken me on as his main project," the teenager tells us over the phone from London, adding, "The whole label itself is mentoring me actually, and they are going to push for the best version of my vision, which is all I could ever ask for really."

Now, there is no half measure in this "vision" that she refers to. Rika is clear that her aim is to reach the loftiest heights of the global pop music circuit. "I would also love to be the face of India, you know. It's not my vision to be successful just in the West. I want to be successful everywhere. And I feel there isn't [enough opportunity] for the Indian community [to make it famous]. So, I want to be the pivotal point that changes that situation," she tells us with a genuine sense of ambition that isn't tarnished by arrogance.

That ambition, she adds, has been nurtured in the careful hands of her father, Ravi. He acts as her manager, and recently started home-schooling her so that she can concentrate completely on music. It's not that her days of formal education were hunky-dory, though. Instead, she suffered a period of bullying. But Rika ultimately made the most of that unfortunate episode by drawing from it to frame her debut composition, No Need. The track has lyrics like, "You don't know anything about my life/ Who are you to pick a fight/ I got some words for you/ There's no need to be unkind to me." Within weeks, it shot up to the top of the UK charts, leaving the likes of Ed Sheeran and Miley Cyrus lagging behind. BBC Radio One made the track its number one song. And consequently, a wider audience realised that there is an Asian-origin singer who can become a musical force to be reckoned with.

Now, with the contract in the bag, Rika plans to launch a long-overdue debut EP. "I was originally going to drop the EP around February. But then I got signed, and now this project has become so much more than just one person releasing a song. It's become a whole team working towards it. I can't specifically talk about any collaborations yet, because (her voice dropping to a whisper) I am not supposed to tell anyone anything. But my EP is definitely due, and I'm really excited about it," she reveals, about a project that - if all goes according to plan - is designed to put India on the map of the commercial western pop industry.

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