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Zack Knight
British-Pakistani singer-songwriter (born 1991) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Zack Knight (born 22 November 1991) is a British-Pakistani singer and songwriter.[1][2][3] Known by the stage name Zeekay until 2011, Knight is recognized for songs such as "Bom Diggy", "Ya Baba", "Galtiyan", "Nakhre", " Rula Diya" and "Enemy".
 | This article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information. (January 2021) |
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Life and career
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Knight was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England, to a Pakistani Punjabi mother and a father of African descent. He moved to Haywards Heath, West Sussex in 1999, studying at Oathall Community College. He describes his music as having an R&B infused style with a crossover sound,[4] with Bollywood and Middle-Eastern influences. He cites Michael Jackson, Boyz II Men and Usher as his main inspirations.[5] Knight produces, composes, and engineers his own music.[6] He is multilingual, writing lyrics in English, Urdu and Punjabi, and Hindi, as well as including elements of Arabic and Bengali.
2007–10: The Zeekay years
Using the stage name Zeekay or Zee Kay, Knight began his career primarily as a songwriter for artists such as Tinie Tempah, Ginuwine, Stylo G, IYAZ and various X Factor contestants. In 2007, he wrote the hit single "Baby (Dil Deewana)" for US R&B artist Ginuwine. Shortly afterwards, he started producing several R&B and hip-hop singles; his debut single "My Moment" (produced by Pcru, Flipnotez), released in 2008, reached #3 in the Myspace R&B charts,[7] which consequently led to him landing a production deal with "Mr Skills, creator of Big Brova's, with whom he had been working on his debut album.[8] From here, Knight produced several other singles across the span of 2 years, including "In Denial (which he performed at various Live shows), Love U Right ft Tinie Tempah, Save It and Inspiration.[9][10]
Knight supported the likes of Taio Cruz, Mario and Jessie J in live concerts and shows.[11] Simultaneously, he was studying for a degree in Economics, which he put on hold to concentrate on his musical aspirations. He eventually graduated. After 2010, he re-branded his music from under his stage name/alias, Zeekay, to under his real name, Zack Knight, as he is still known by now.[12]
2011–14: Re-branding, covers and albums
After 2010, Knight, now operating without his stage name/alias, produced several singles and albums. As a result of his re-branding, he was now working with different artists and producers, therefore his style of music changed, with less of a focus on hip-hop mainstream music and more focus on pop music sound.[13] He received regional and national support from his debut single "All Over Again" in 2012, and his second single "Who I Am" was also featured as one of iTunes "New & Noteworthy" picks of the month, which was followed by his third single "When I'm Gone".[14][15] (although these three singles later become incorporated into his 2016-released album On Repeat). He was also active in producing his own covers, as well as remixes of popular songs, on his YouTube channel.[16] As well as this, he produced two albums: "Poison In My Sleep" (2014)[17] and "On Repeat" (released 2016, although the songs dated back to 2011-12).[18]
2014–present
In 2014, Knight signed a deal with T-Series. Under this record label, he produced several singles, including "Dheere", "Nakhre", "Enemy", "Looking For Love", and "Tere Naam", most of which topped the BBC Asian Network Charts. He collaborated with various artists within the BBC Asian Network Industry, including Raxstar and Jasmin Walia. He has also collaborated with artists outside the United Kingdom, such as rapper Badshah, playback singer Mohammad Irfan, and American YouTube personality Adam Saleh. After being appointed BBC Music Ambassador in 2017, he successfully sold out both of his own UK headline tours in the following year.[citation needed]
During this period, Knight also wrote and produced "Bom Diggy", featuring Jasmin Walia, amassing over 1.1 billion views on YouTube (as of April 2021).[19] This track also appeared in the Bollywood comedy Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety (2018). This was accompanied by 2 Top 5 peaking singles in the UK R&B iTunes charts ("Ya Baba", "Tears"), 1 Top 10 UK Dance iTunes chart ("Love Controller"), three Consecutive Number ones on the BBC Asian Network Download Chart ("Nakhre", "Lamhe", "Enemy"),[20][21][22] and 10 top five singles in the World/Asian Charts.
He creates remixes, mashups and medleys. His remixes typically follow the style of compiling several Bollywood songs and mixing them with English R&B fusion,[23] or making acoustic-type covers and remixes of popular songs or his own songs.[24][25][26]
On 28 February 2021, Knight released a new song named "Para Rum Pa", in collaboration with Jernade Miah and Kayes Rashid, on YouTube, reaching over 200k+ views on its release day, and over 1M views within 2 weeks.[27]
On 14 October 2021, Knight released a 3-track album titled 'Dear Dad', in memory of his father, who died in August 2021. He is currently working on another album, which is due to be released in December 2021 named 'iamzackknight'. His latest cover is Kahani Suno 2.0 and Bollywood Medley 9.
In 2022, Knight collaborated with Nora Fatehi for the song "Dirty Little Secret".[28]
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Discography
Singles
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Awards
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