Who is Dhee: Sri Lankan-Australian playback singer Dheekshitha Venkadeshan is best known for singing the viral song Enjoy Enjaami, which has broken past language and culture barriers and become a global hit. But when Dhee featured on a magazine cover recently along with Canadian singer Shan Vincent de Paul, the internet was not happy. Reason, both the singers had found fame for songs penned by rapper Arivu, who was missing from the cover. Arivu had also sung the song Enjoy Enjaami alongside Dhee. The controversy has now sparked a renewed interest in the Sri Lankan-Australian singer's work.
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Dhee has sung tracks in films like Madras, Irudhi Suttru, Soorarai Pottru and Jagame Thandhiram. It was Enjoy Enjaami, however, featuring rapper Arivu and produced by Santhosh Narayanan, that helped Dhee find worldwide fame.
Released on March 5 this year, the Tamil song received 266 million views in just three months. It was later picked up by DJ Snake for a remix and became the first-ever Tamil Independent song to be showcased in Times Square Billboard. The song's video has nearly 300 million views on YouTube. It speaks about the history of labourers who have exploited while they were working in the Sri Lankan tea estates and their struggle for land. The song was written by Arivu after he had a candid chat with his grandmother Valiammal, who worked as a bonded labourer in Sri Lankan tea estates. More here.
Who is Dhee?
The 23-year-old Sydney-based singer has previously sung hits like Rowdy Baby from Maari 2 (2018), alongside actor Dhanush. This particular song, composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, garnered over 1.2 billion views, and it went on to become the most viewed Tamil song on YouTube. Dhee’s first film song, though, was in Pizza II.
Dhee is currently managed by Maajja (AR Rahman’s platform for indie musicians) who is also producing her upcoming debut album in English, expected to be out by the end of this year. She is now based in Chennai, where her parents live, and has been here since March 2020.
Brought up in Sydney, Dhee was born into a musical family. Under normal circumstances, she would have balanced her time between Sydney and Chennai, but at the moment, the thought of relocation hasn’t crossed her mind. In the nearest future, while she is in India, the singer hopes to push the new wave of music culture, direct from the roots of different cultures. "This is the future,” she recently told RollingStone India. Dhee wants to become an artist based in different locations who would render her voice for cultural identity. She mentioned that more than herself, her mother (renowned singer Meenakshi Iyer) often finds influences that show her Tamil roots. “There are a lot of influences that come from her as well as my grandpa, who’s from Jaffna and he’s also a writer,” she added.
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Growing up, Dhee always had a penchant to do creativity as she loved fashion and interior designing. She is a very good painter too. Talking about her current aim, Dhee said she wants to see South Asian artistes excel. "When festivals like Yaall happen, it will promote South Asian indie musicians all over the world. I would like for it to become our Coachella festival. It will be a cultural revolution,” she told The Hindu. Dhee's biggest inspiration is Narayanan, who is her step-father. Earlier, she sang Ey Sandakaara song from Irudhi Suttru, another incredible composition by Narayanan, and became a chartbuster.
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