‘BEAUTIFUL’ SONGWRITER
Savan Kotecha of Austin, Texas, was nominated for a Grammy Award (Best Song Written for Visual Media) for co-writing Ellie Goulding’s hit song “Love Me Like You Do,” from the soundtrack of the film Fifty Shades of Grey.
Kotecha, the son of Gujarati immigrants, isn’t a household name, but most teenagers in America would recognize the songs he has composed. Among them are megahits such as One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful,” Jessie J’s “Bang Bang,” The Weeknd’s “In the Night,” Usher’s “DJ Got Us Falling in Love,” and Maroon 5’s “One More Night.”
Composing songs can be a long process, but you have to be ready when inspiration strikes, even if it’s in an unusual place. In a recent interview with PopJustice.com, Kotecha revealed where he conceived “What Makes You Beautiful,” the 2011 hit song: “I was literally (using the toilet) at the Royal Garden Hotel in London. My wife was on the other side of the wall and she was having one of those ‘I feel so ugly’ days. I shouted ‘you’re not’ and in my mind I was thinking ‘wow, that’s one of the great things about you is that you don’t know how beautiful you are and that’s what makes you beautiful.’ I literally wrote down the phrase and then I went to the studio with Rami (Yacoub) and Carl (Falk). I had the melody of ‘Baby, you light up my world like nobody else’ in my head and then everything connected.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? Please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]
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