A.R. Rahman sings ‘Jai Ho’ for Kamala Harris in White House race

Renowned Indian composer and musician A.R. Rahman sang his Oscar-winning song ‘Jai Ho’ (Be Victorious) at a virtual concert Sunday to endorse Indian American Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in the White House race.

The exclusive 30-minute performance by Rehman, a Tamilian who hails from Chennai like the Vice President’s late mother Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer researcher, was organized by the AAPI Victory Fund, a Super PAC backing Asian American candidates.

Besides Jai Ho from Slumdog  Millionaire, Rahman sang several other popular songs like ‘Singapenney,’ (lioness) from Tamil movie ˆ. He was accompanied by drummer Veeramani and sang duets, including with singer and voice actor Chinmayi Sripada.

READ: A.R. Rahman’s live concert to support Kamala Harris’ historic candidacy (October 11, 2024)

Featuring some of Rahman’s most beloved songs, the show was interspersed with messages highlighting Harris’s historic candidacy and commitment to the AAPI community.

“Her (Harris’) interest in focusing on what unites us instead of what divides us is a message that is very important, not just for the United States but for the world,” said Rahman. “As a fellow South Asian, Tamil, person, I’m deeply proud of her commitment to making the world a better place.”

“This powerful endorsement by one of the most iconic voices in the South Asian community underscores the vital role of AAPI voters in this election and the growing momentum behind the Harris-Walz ticket,” said Chairman of the AAPI Victory Fund  Shekar Narasimhan.

“With this performance, A.R. Rahman has added his voice to a chorus of leaders and artists who are standing up for progress and representation in America,” he said.

“It is more than a musical event. It’s a call to action for our communities to engage and vote for the future we want to see. You have to make a plan to vote. You have to volunteer in this campaign, and you have to donate,” he said adding, “It’s called ‘tan, man, dhan’ (body, mind, wealth).”

Follow Desimax’s Road to the White House coverage

Narasimhan said that 400,000 Indian American voters in seven battleground states — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina — could be the “margin of difference” between winning and losing the election, given the victory margins in these states in 2020.

In 2020, President Joe Biden won all of these states, except North Carolina which favored former President Donald Trump.

In her book, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, Harris, who was mostly raised by her mother, says Gopalan and her relatives “instilled us with pride in our South Asian roots.”

She and her sister, Maya, were raised with “a strong awareness of and appreciation for Indian culture.” Her mother knew, Harris says, that in the US, they would be seen as “black” and therefore raised them to be “confident, proud black women.”

The exclusive performance was broadcast on AAPI Victory Fund’s YouTube as also across major South Asian networks, including AVS and TV Asia, as part of a strategic push to galvanize support for Kamala Harris among South Asian voters worldwide.

The video also features M.R. Rangaswami, founder of Indiaspora, who was also born in Chennai.