Femina Miss India World 2000, Bollywood starlet and now pop singer, Priyanka Chopra recently unveiled her first ever English international single ‘In my City’ feat. Will.i.am at a city hotel. At first one wondered whether it was truly our ‘desi’ actress singing. The song is very western with no traces of any Indian element whatsoever. The English lyrics backed by a funky bassline, is punchy and groovy piece of work, a fab dance track that can set anyone’s feet tapping. From the opening bars to the vocal range, the pitch is perfect. This could be more due to the fact that the singer had the support of the big names in western music, namely working with the Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am and produced by RedOne and Brian Kennedy. The BEPs are known for using the auto tune widely in their music and it comes as no surprise to find that the song has a generous dose of auto tune. Will.i.am’s rap segment is short but impressive and gels well in the song. No doubt Chopra’s vocals are the plus point here, her lyrics are simple, very clear to understand (unlike a few foreign artistes), very inviting and touching. “Everybody’s welcome here, everybody welcome to my city, we… got no worries here, I know you gonna like it in my city, know you got a friend in me, You never want to leave, come on, come on…..you never have a party gonna have a party till you come to my city.”

The actor-turned-singer has been working hard for the 2 years to achieve this goal. At the event she stated that she had been doing riyaaz after her film shoots, training with a voice coach and a team of experts to get good voice tone. The hard work seems to have worked wonders for her.

‘In my City’ is a little over three minutes and a good dance song which should scorch the dance floor in the days to come. The song is on par with international standards, and Chopra could be the next singing star, but if PeeCee is looking at being the next J Lo here, she really has to work on her album which she plans to release one day, and make sure that it rocks and she does not become a one hit song wonder. Just having another single Exotic featuring Pitbull is not going to help.

Rating ****

Reviewed by Verus Ferreira