Rabby Shergill, the Indian Musician, as he is popularly known, was born in 1973 in Delhi and was
named Gurpreet Singh Shergill. His father was a Sikh Preacher and mother, a Punjabi Poetess, former
Principal of Mata Sundri College for Women, Delhi. He studied at Guru Harkrishan Public School, India
Gate and University of Delhi. He was fond of music from his young age and during his college time, he
formed his band named KAFFIR, which played in some competitions and college festivals. Shergill initially
composed jingles for advertisement agencies such as Yamaha RX-T motorbikes and Times FM. He had
an unsuccessful stint with Sony Music and Tehelka before finally releasing his debut album Rabbi in 2004
under Phat Phish Records. Relying on word-of-mouth publicity and a music video, he had a chart topper
song “Bulla Ki Jaana”. Most of the songs in the album were composed and written by Shergill himself except
for “Bulla Ki Jaana” based on the poetry of 18th Century Muslim Sufi mystic Baba Bulleh Shah, “Heer” from
Heer by Waris Shah and “Ishtihar” by Shiv Kumar Batalvi. Shergill had one song ‘Dilli’ in the Hindi Moview,
Delhi Heights. In October 2008, Shergill released his second album Avengi Ja Nahin, under Yashraj Music.
The album contains nine songs and deals with issues like communal violence, social responsibility and the
need for “collective morality”. He also appeared in MTV Unplugged (India) in 2011. He lent his voice to
Yash Chopra in 2012 romantic film Jab Tak Hai Jaan singing the leading number Challa composed by A.R.
Rehman and the lyrics penned by Gulzar. In March 2012, he released his third album ‘III’.
He is a role model musician because he has adopted a new style different from Bhangra or traditional
folk. It is rather a blend of rock music with Sufi and Philosophical archaic Punjabi vocabulary and phrases.
His favourite musicians include Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Jimmy Page. He has also
worked with award winning mix engineer Gustavo Cells, who helped him out with some tracks for his album
III. Thus, when we hear this role model musician, we feel the melody of the Bani, the seriousness of Sufis
and the western style rocking songs. That is why he has been called Punjabi Music’s true urban balladeer.