About Bhangra King Daler Mehndi

Bollywood Bhangra King Daler Mehndi born August 18, 1967, is a bhangra/pop singer from India.Pop King Daler Mehndi was a student of traditional Punjabi music and his first album broke sales records in India.

Since 1995 he has recorded several highly successful albums in India, and also sung in several Bollywood movies. His international popularity has grown in recent years allowing him to tour the United States.

Daler Mehndi is well known as a philanthropist, funding beautification projects in Delhi and aiding earthquake victims.

As a Sikh, born and raised in Patna, he began singing at age 6 and was taught the ragas and Shabads from the Guru Granth Sahib by his parents. At age fourteen he spent three years refining his voice and learning the tabla, dholak/dhool, harmonium and tanpura from Late Ustad Raahat Ali Khan Saheb of Gorakhpur.

Pop King Daler Mehndi then moved to San Francisco, United States and worked as a cab driver before returning to India in 1991 and forming a band.[5][6] Initially he sang Afghan songs, and ghazals inspired by the poets Qateel Shifai and Firaq Gorakhpuri.
In 1992 he was in a car accident that injured a jaywalking man who Mehndi then took to the hospital. Mehndi was sued as a result of the mishap.

Daler Mehndi eventually switched from classical music to pop, and in 1995 his first album Bolo Ta Ra Ra, with tunes based on those given to him by his mother, sold half a million copies in four months and 20 million copies total, making him the best selling non-soundtrack album in Indian music history. He received the Award for Voice of Asia International Ethnic and Pop Music Contest in 1994. He earned Channel V's Best Male Pop Singer Award, which he received in 1996 for Dar Di Rab Rab and in 1997 for Ho Jayegi Bale Bale. He has appeared in the films Mrityudata and Arjun Pundit. His success helped him negotiate a record-breaking deal with his record company Magnasound for 20.5 million rupees. He has also been a guest star on the new Indian version of Sesame Street known as Galli Galli Sim Sim.

His album song "Tunak Tunak Tun" is an Internet phenomenon. This cult following was spurred by the music video for Mehndi's song "Tunak Tunak Tun", often referred to simply as "Tunak", which gained its popularity due to Daler Mehndi's wild dancing and has led to many homages and parodies. Daler Mehndi originally conceived of the music video, in which he dances with "clones" of himself, in response to media statements that he was popular only because of the models in his videos. Tunak Tunak Tun was the first music video to make use of bluescreen technology in India.

Daler Mehndi has established the Daler Mehndi Green Drive to help make a cleaner environment in Delhi. He has also donated 85 million rupees to the green drive, 12 million rupees to Cargyle charities, and built 16 houses in Gujarat after an earthquake there.[18] He also did a concert series in Pakistan to raise funds for the quake victims. He has also helped rehabilitate victims of the Orissa cyclone and street children in Kenya.

He is a fan of automobiles, owning a Prado because of the protection it gives against the road rage and "poor discipline on the part of the majority of road users" on Delhi's streets, but hopes to purchase a Hummer "like Jackie Shroff" at some point.