"Urvasi Urvasi" is an Indian

Tamil-language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pud ...

song composed by

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

and written by

Vairamuthu Vairamuthu Ramasamy (born 13 July 1953) is an Indian lyricist, poet, and novelist working in the Tamil film industry. He is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. A master's graduate from the Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai, he first ...

for the soundtrack of the 1994 film ''

Kadhalan ''Kadhalan'' ( ) is a 1994 Indian Tamil-language romantic thriller film written and directed by S. Shankar and produced by K. T. Kunjumon. The film stars Prabhu Deva and Nagma (in her major Tamil cinema debut), while Vadivelu, Raghuvaran, ...

''. The song features vocals by Suresh Peters,

Shahul Hameed Shahul Hameed (Tamil: சாகுல் ஹமீது; 1953-1998) was an Indian playback singer who sang predominantly in Tamil cinema under the music direction of the Academy winner A. R. Rahman. His association with the composer dates b ...

and A. R. Rahman himself. "Urvasi" was the first song composed for the film. The song was a chartbuster in contemporary

Tamil music Music of Tamil Nadu has a long tradition and history going back thousands of years. Music is a very important aspect of marriage and temple festival Tamil people. Ancient music The tradition of Tamil music goes back to the earliest period o ...

, and became one of the most popular songs of all time. The

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

version of the song was similarly successful across India.

Other versions

The song was later dubbed into

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

and

. The Hindi version of the ''Kadhalan'' soundtrack, called ''Humse Hai Muqabala'', sold 2.5 million units in India, with "Urvasi" being one of its most popular tracks. It inspired the title of Rajsirpy's 1996 film '' Take It Easy Urvasi'' In 2014, American hip hop recording artist

will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "Will-I-am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is the founding and lead member of the musical group Black Eyed Peas. ...

and singer

Cody Wise Cody Wise (born December 29, 1995) is an American singer signed to Interscope Records through will.i.am's imprint. He is best known for featuring on " It's My Birthday" by will.i.am. The song, which was recorded in 2014 and released as a singl ...

, re-created "Urvasi Urvasi" as '' It's My Birthday''. ''It's My Birthday'' topped the charts in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, becoming will.i.am's tenth chart-topper there (including five as a member of

The Black Eyed Peas Black Eyed Peas (also known as The Black Eyed Peas) is an American musical group consisting of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo. The group's line-up during the height of their popularity in the 2000s featured Fergie, who replaced Kim Hi ...

). In 2016, this song was featured in the Australian movie '' Lion''.

Yo Yo Honey Singh Hirdesh Singh (born 15 March 1983), known professionally as Yo Yo Honey Singh or simply Honey Singh, is an Indian music producer, rapper, singer, songwriter and an actor. He started out in 2003 as a session and recording artist, and became a b ...

released a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

called "Urvashi" in 2018. It was also re-used in online pharmacy application named pharmEasy's commercial.

References

{{reflist 1994 songs Indian songs Songs written for films Tamil-language songs Tamil film songs Songs with music by A. R. Rahman Songs with lyrics by Vaali (poet)

Other versions

See also

References