Jay Sean Biography: In His Own Words – Exclusive Video, News, Photos, Age

Jay Sean is a British singer-songwriter. He is best known for his songs “Eyes on You” and “Down.”

JAY SEAN BIOGRAPHY: AGE, EARLY LIFE, FAMILY, EDUCATION

Jay Sean, originally Kamaljit Singh Jhooti, was born on March 26, 1981 (Jay Sean: Age 42) in Hounslow, West London to Indian Punjabi Sikh parents Sharan Singh Jhooti and Bindi Kaur Jhooti. At 11 years old he started performing with his cousin with the stage name Nicky J, which is how he got the nickname Jay.

Sean studied at Latymer Upper School and finished his GCSEs in 1997. He started to study in the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary University of London, but dropped out to pursue his singing career in 2003.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Sean discussed how he got started rapping and why he dropped out of medical school.

“I think for me, of course, it was always hobby,” he began. “‘Oh, this crazy little son of ours, he loves singing, oh he loves beat-boxing. I don’t know what he’s doing all the time, he’s just making this noise.’ But it didn’t stop, it grew bigger if anything and there was this sort of like the pivotal moment in my life where I had actually got into med school, I was studying medicine, I was two years in on my way to being a doctor, but I hadn’t stopped the music. Like, medicine is hard enough and when I got home I was writing raps and writing songs and building beats and even I was knew, ‘why am I taking this on? It’s so much work, there’s got to be something, there’s got to be a reason why I’m not stopping the music.'”

“And it just got to that point where the music and my love for the music got so overwhelming and it was almost like a big hammer from the universe going, ‘are you stupid? You idiot! This is what you’re meant to be doing!'” Sean continued. “And it is just such an obvious gut feeling and so that’s when I told my parents I said, ‘hey, look. You clearly know that I haven’t given up the music and now it’s getting serious. It’s the point where my songs are out there, demos are out there, record companies are calling and I really wanna do this.’ And that’s when I got my parents support and they were just like, ‘whatever you do, we don’t mind as long as you give it 100%, the same way you did in med school, give it 100% in music.’ And that’s exactly what I did to end up here.”

JAY SEAN BIOGRAPHY: CAREER

After producer Rishi Rich found Sean in 2003, he created the Rishi Rich Project which helped get Sean on the Top 20 list with the song “Dance With You.” This allowed Sean to sign a contract with Virgin Records and produce music under their label Relentless Records.

Sean’s first solo single was “Eyes on You,” which peaked at #6 on the Top 20 list. “Stolen,” his third single, did even better, peaking at #4. Sean launched his debut album in 2004, titled Me Against Myself. The album was praised as innovative with a fusion of contemporary R&B, Indian music and British hip-hop, and sold over 2 million copies in India.

My Own Way, Sean’s second album, was released in 2007 and made it to #6 in the U.K. Albums Chart. Two of the singles on the album, “Ride It” and “Maybe” also made it to the Top 20 list and got Sean two nominations for UK’s MOBO awards.

In 2008 Sean announced that he would be joining the American record label Cash Money Records, where he produced the single “Down.” Sean became the first solo artist of Asian descent to top the Billboard Hot 100. Since then, “Down” has sold 4.1 million copies in the US alone and has been played 2 billion times on the radio worldwide.

Sean won three awards at the 2009 UK Asian Music Awards: “Best Male,” “Best Urban Act” and “Best Album.”

In 2014 Sean left Cash Money Records and released his first single under his own name in 2016 titled, “Make My Love Go.” Some of Sean’s other songs include “Do You Love Me,” “What You Want,” “Emergency,” “Say Something,” “Need to Know” and “Now or Later.”

JAY SEAN BIOGRAPHY: CALL ME DANCER

Call Me Dancer follows the story of a young Mumbai dancer who is determined to become a professional dancer despite his parents’ wishes that he would follow a traditional path and education. 

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, executive producer Sean talked about why he wanted to be part of the film. 

“When I was sent the initial first, sort of rough edit draft of the movie and they asked me if I would like to be involved and honestly, I was immediately impressed by the cinematography,” Sean said. “You know like, this is a docu-film but shot so beautifully. It didn’t feel like your classic sort of documentary which is very cinematic and had that elegant feel to it and it was very real and honest and you know, a story that I can relate to because it’s the Rocky Balboa story, you know, and that’s what it is to me. That the little guy who has a big dream and you know goes against all odds to chase that dream and I think that’s something that a lot of us can relate to, but I personally went through that myself being you know a South Asian first to crossover mainstream and have the kind of success that I had and when I should have been pursuing a medical degree and so to me it’s just resonating I was like, ‘Ok, I really love where this is going.’ And I wanted to get involved and that’s how it came about.”

Sean, a hugely successful musician himself, went on to further talk about how he could relate to South Asian families not wanting their children to pursue arts. 

“The amount of times I’ve been asked in my career which is now 20 years and I’m still getting asked this question, ‘so Jay how did your parents feel about you quitting medicine going into music’ and I’m like, it’s fine, I addressed this but it clearly goes to show that there is not one actual answer because my answer would just be actually they were supportive, but what they want to hear is, ‘no they hated it and I have to get go against all odds and then finally won my parents over,” he explained. “Mine was a little bit different but I can answer the general question for why I think a lot of Indian families or should I say just sort of South Asian families because I can only speak for them, um would be more inclined to encourage their children go to go into academia rather than the arts is quite simple. It’s because their forefathers, or they themselves, had to leave their motherland, come to the West in hopes of creating a better life for not only themselves but mainly for their children.”

“My grandfather, for example, came over from India, had to leave his family of five kids and his wife behind in India for three years in order to come to England where his brother-in-law had moved and got a job in order to make a little more money and send it back to India for the family and, you know, really he was grinding and only after three years of being separated from his family could he bring them over, afford to bring them over and then sort of give them this better life that he had dreamt of for his family,” Sean continued. “So after going to all of that hardship and leaving your family behind, the last thing they want to hear once their kids grow up is like, ‘hey, Dad! I wanna be an actor!’ ‘Yeah, good job, go to Cambridge University. Become a doctor or a lawyer or something that is a career, a profession.’ As opposed to something that may be, and most likely is, by most people considered a very fickle job. What are the odds of actually making it as a dancer, actually making it as a singer, actually making it as an actor? They don’t want their kids to struggle the way they did and that’s probably the reason why I think that stereotype exists.”

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