Jai Matt was nine years old when he moved to the US from Kerala. Over the years, he realised he needed to stay connected to his roots, and started making Indian-English fusion songs for the diaspora. He has now released his first original Tamil track ‘Yelelo’ with Jaiz John and Alisha Thomas.
“Jaiz and I have been working on this track since 2018 and we shot the video last year,” he told Showtime. The pandemic delayed its release.
The koothu-fusion style came from Jai’s familiarity with Tamil movies. “I had to make sure the English was only about 20 per cent of the song,” he says.
Alisha Thomas, popular for singing the Tamil hit track ‘Donu Donu Donu’, has sung the female lead.
“Jaiz was in Kerala, Alisha was in Chennai and I was in the US. We coordinated remotely for months to put this song together,” says Matt.
(‘Yelelo’ is available on YouTube, Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn and Apple Music)