Singer Jay Sean has expressed his hope that the King will “get up and dance” during his set at the British Asian Trust Gala this Tuesday.
The 45-year-old artist, known for his 2009 hit Down with US rapper Lil Wayne, is scheduled to perform for the monarch at the annual fundraising event.
This performance follows Sean becoming the first South Asian artist to earn a Diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for selling over 10 million copies of his 2009 track.
Sean said he is not nervous for the upcoming show, adding that the invitation served as a “beautiful reminder” of his career’s impact on people.
He said: “King Charles shall be witnessing.
“I’m hoping he’s going to get up and dance a little bit.
“Obviously the Gala is a very prestigious thing that celebrates all of the sort of contribution from British Asians in this country.
“It’s nice to be recognised for those achievements and to be able to celebrate that tomorrow, I think it’s going to be lovely.”
Sean said telling his parents and seeing them “so proud” was a full circle moment for him after he quit medicine to pursue his music career.
“It’s one of those things where you go, ‘well, see, mum, it wasn’t such a bad idea to quit medicine’.
“To have that sort of longevity and to be able to span over two decades, when there’s so many choice of artists that they could choose, whenever you’re chosen for something like this, it’s always a moment to remind yourself and say ‘that’s not an easy accomplishment’.
“It’s kind of like a beautiful reminder of just how you’ve spent your career and the impact that you’ve had on people.”
Sean said his setlist will include “bangers only” and include a mix of music including a song where he will sing in Punjabi and English.
He said: “Music has this amazing ability of being able to transport you back in time, because we all remember where we were when we first heard that song, we remember who we were dating and what we were studying and where we were, who our friend group was, what we used to do, and I think that’s the sort of magic in performing those songs.
“I love seeing the reaction of people when you could just see it brings them back to into a beautiful moment.”
Speaking about the Gala and what else needs to happen to for British Asians to access the same opportunities as other communities, the singer said it boils down to re-education.
He said: “There are still stereotypes as to what we do, what kind of jobs we do, what kind of contribution we make to this society and quite often the arts are overlooked.
“I think that the arts is a space that we really took a long time for people to understand that ‘hey, we can be funny too, we can be comedians, we can be actors, we can do music’.
“We can do all those things, because we’re not that different.
“I think it’s re-educating that and looking a bit more into the arts that people can discover how much talent there really is there.”
Sean has had four UK top 10 singles including Down, Stolen, 2012 (It Ain’t The End) and Eyes On You.
