Armaan Malik says he was told ‘don’t try to be Justin Bieber’ when he started singing songs in English

Singer Armaan Malik said that many believe that Indians are not good at singing in English and ‘we always sound like we are trying too hard’. He talked about the comments he got, dissuading him and how he takes them with a pinch of salt.

Armaan released his first English song, Control, in 2020. He has also sung songs such as How Many and Echo. His new single titled You came out earlier this month.

During an interview with Bollywood Bubble, Armaan talked about the comments dissuading him from singing in English. “There have been comments on my posts and even on my YouTube videos saying, ‘English mein mat gaa, Hindi mein gaa, tu usme hi behtar hai (Sing in Hindi and not in English, you are better at that)’. These are comments that I need to take with a pinch of salt because whenever you do something people don’t expect, you are going against the norm and the rule book, there will always be naysayers and people who will be against what you are trying to achieve. It’s totally fine,” he said.

Armaan said he wants to be that Indian artist whom Indian fans can cheer for at a global level. “Even though there might be people who say, ‘You sing better in Hindi, it’s better that you sing in Hindi only, don’t sing in English…’ ‘Don’t try to be Justin Bieber’, that’s what people say. I don’t think I am trying to be anyone. There are a lot of people having those misconceptions when you try something different. It’s good to have that opposition, not everyone can be your fan, not everyone can be your lover, but I think it’s about proving everyone wrong at the end of the day,” he said.

Also see: Armaan Malik debuts English single Control, says ‘inspired by controlling relationships I’ve seen’. Watch

Armaan has sung in various languages including Hindi, English, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi and Malayalam. He won ‘Best Indian Act’ at the 2020 MTV EMAs for Control.