Taran Kaur Dhillon (born 29 July 1979), known by her stage name Hard Kaur,
is a British Indian rapper and hip hop singer; as well as playback singer and actress in Bollywood.
She is the first female Indian rapper after her mainstream break
including not limited to Savita Vaid aka Miss Scandalous. She usually does playback singing.
Hard Kaur was born Taran Kaur
Dhillon in Kanpur,
Uttar Pradesh, where her mother ran a small beauty parlour in the house.
When she was young, she lost her father in the 1984 riots and her mother's beauty parlour was
burnt a few days after her father's death. Later on her paternal grandparents asked her mother to leave their house
and wanted to keep her brother with them.
Subsequently she, her brother and her mother moved to Hoshiarpur
to her maternal grandparents house, where they stayed for the next couple of
years.
In 1991 her mother remarried a
British citizen and her family moved to Birmingham,
England, where her mother started working and studying to eventually open a
beauty salon. Meanwhile Hard Kaur did her schooling.
After developing interest in hip-hop she started her music career as a rapper.
Career
She recorded the song "Ek
Glassy" and was top for the UK then in 2007 rapped for Sriram Raghavan's
movie Johnny Gaddaar's song "Paisa Phek (Move Your
Body)." Since then she has sung in movies like Ugly Aur Pagli ("Talli"), Singh Is Kinng, Kismat Konnection, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Ajab
Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, and Prince.
Her first solo album Supawoman
was released in 2007.
In 2008 Hard Kaur was nominated for
two awards at the UK Asian Music Awards: "Best Urban Act" and "Best Female
Act".
She won "Best Female Act".
In October 2012, Hard Kaur released
her second music album titled Party Loud All Year: P.L.A.Y. The album,
produced in collaboration with Sony music, featured ten songs, all of which
were written and composed by her.
The most successful song of the album was Mujhe peeney do.
In 2013 – she collaborated with
composer Ram Sampath and Rajasthani folk singer Bhanvari Devi for Coke Studio
India. In the song Katey or Kathe – Bhanvari Devi's part is a Rajasthani folk
song which is dedicated to Lord Krishna (Saanwariyo) and Rap by Hard Kaur –
written by herself in which she express her personal life journey.At the time
of elections, she composed a song "Karle Tu Voting" to spread
awareness about voting. Hard Kaur composed a song for FIFA World Cup
named "Goal Mar Goal Mar". The song aptly describes fan frenzy and is
sung in Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali & South language too. Also, she herself has
written the lyrics of the song.
In May 2013 Hard Kaur was performing
alongside Honey Singh when she was alleged to hurt Sikh sentiments by making
derogatory remarks whilst under the influence of alcohol, during the
performance also making an objectionable remark towards a Sikh gentleman's
flowing beard, and comparing the Sikh-Gate Keeper at JW Marriot with the tenth
Sikh Master Guru Gobind Sikh ji.
TV
