DJ Desi

DJ Desi is an International DJ, Songwriter and Producer of South Asian origin. He is well known for arranging music for designer fashion shows and blending music in eight different languages.

Biography
DJ Desi, born in Tripoli, Libya and raised in Pakistan, California, Washington DC by an Indian mother and a Pakistani father, started paying attention to music at an early age. As a child he was obsessed with music and collected hundreds of tapes of music in various different genres. His Pakistani music collection ranged from old classics to Bhangra, Ghazals, Pakistani pop, Hip Hop, Arabic music, Persian music, R&B, Techno and Trance. The Multi-lingual (English, Urdu,Punjabi, Arabic, ) American started experimenting with blending music on his computer in his high school years. In 1995, he shifted his residency from California to Washington, DC. Same year, he bought his first mixer and a Pioneer CD deck. DJ Desi started performing for small crowds in 1995. Same year, he launched his first official web site djdesi.comand starting getting global exposure.

In 1998, he was contacted by an event coordinator who was actively involved in the fashion scene in New York City and asked him to arrange music for a fashion show. The designer was Donna Karan. At the age of 23, he professionally started providing music for clubs and commercial clients such as DKNY and Marc Jacobs. He is the only South Asian DJ who holds the honors of working with world renown Fashion designers. DJ Desi has over 30 primetime fashion shows under his belt.

DJ Career
For over ten years DJ Desi has brought his vigorous style and enthusiastic stage presence to events throughout North America. His mixes have created new waves in the Desi club scene. Over the past 13 years, he has received many accolades for his work in the private and commercial sector. He has performed for big designers, clubs and hundreds of private events. In 2008, he also started working as a producer and founded DJ Desi Soundworks closely working with Jerusha Ghazanfari who is a veteran music publisher, songwriter. As a music publisher, Jerusha supervised her staff of songwriters administratively and creatively, as well as negotiated and obtained song cuts on national television shows on NBC, CBS, ABC, the WB Network, ABC Family, MTV, VH1, UPN, and ESPN. During her time as a music publisher, she also secured song cuts on Sony Pictures' films Something's Gotta Give, Spanglish, The Perfect Man and secured a "featured artist" spot for Relient K on the 2002 A&FTV Holiday episode in Abercrombie & Fitch stores nationwide. The company provides commercial recording and licensing services to new artists.

Humanitarian work
DJ Desi has also become known for his philanthropic work. In 2005, He founded Desi Attitude Foundation to raise awareness of poverty, illiteracy in India and Pakistan, child labor, refugee children in USA and homeless in USA. Under his Desi Attitude initiatives he has organized:

*A Children Refugee Project - Washington DC This project helped over 75+ Children with education and shelter - Washington DC
*Numerous Homeless Drives - Washington DC
*Numerous Blood Drives - Northern Virginia
*Helped launched Autism Behavioral Intervention - Sydney Australia
*Performed in numerous Charity events for organizations like Indian Literacy Project, Capoeira DC to promote music and dance, USCRI and many more.

Discography
Singles
*"La Tortura - Desi Midnight Mix" (2004) (DJ DESI Records)
*"Asian Groove" (2006) (Putumayo World Music)
*"Bhangra That" (2006) (New World Records)
*"Desi Midnight Express" (2007) (DJ Desi Sounworks)

Awards
*1999 Best Indian DJ; India FM
*2004 Best International DJ; DJ Times

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