Yo Yo Honey Singh
Hirdesh Singh (born 15 March 1983), known professionally as Yo Yo Honey Singh, is an Indian singer, rapper and record producer. Regarded as one of the most popular and influential artist, rap artist emerging from India, he is credited with popularizing hip-hop and rap with the mainstream Indian audience, taking the art pan-India. While much of his transgressive work during the late 2000s, early 2010s made him a controversial figure, he came to be a representation of voice of the Indian youth.
Singh commenced his career as a hip-hop music producer with his underground album titled Desi By Nature (2003), subsequently working as a session and recording artist within the underground music scene for other artists until the release of his debut studio album, International Villager (2011). In 2012, after the huge success of I.V. and his mainstream breakout, he set the record for the highest paid Indian artist, let alone a rap artist, by charging a whopping fee of 75 lakh INR for a track in Bollywood. Currently, he is also the richest and the most successful Indian rapper. He continued releasing several chartbuster singles and subsequently, released his second studio album Desi Kalakaar (2014). Following another blockbuster release, Singh took a hiatus reportedly from struggles with bipolar disorder with psychotic symptoms which triggered as a result of heavy alcoholism and drug abuse.
After a brief recovery in 2016 followed by a relapse, he returned to the music industry with the release of his single "Makhna" (2018) with huge acclaim. He released his albums Honey 3.0 (2023) followed by Glory (2024), with the latter breaking multiple streaming records accompanied by the lead single "Millionaire" which became a chartbuster upon its release crossing over 300 million views on YouTube under 7 months, with over 150 million Spotify streams.
Singh's nickname growing up was "Honey". However, the origin of "Yo Yo" came from Singh picking up the slang from his African-American friends who too were hip-hop heads, which means "your very own" in African American Vernacular English. Singh added "Yo Yo" to his name professionally after winning an award in Punjab during his early career. This interpretation of the slang gave him a unique identity of "your very own Honey Singh". Singh stated that the idea behind the inclusion of the term was "to establish an even deeper bond with his fans not only through his music and artistry, but also through the preface of his stage name indicating that at the end of the day, he also is one amongst the people and is the people's artist".
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