Nora Fatehi, a multicultural artist fluent in English, Hindi, French, and Moroccan Arabic, discusses her unique blend of music styles and dancing. She recounts her journey from Toronto to Bollywood, her collaboration with Jason Derulo and CK, plans for a 2025 tour and more!
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00:00Like the music video is epic, we shot it in Morocco.
00:02I'm going on tour next year, 2025.
00:05If I speak Moroccan, which is called Debija,
00:08speak English, Hindi, French.
00:10Hi, I'm Nora Fethe and you're watching Billboard News.
00:15So I think what makes me different as an artist,
00:18not only am I coming from India,
00:20not being Indian, being Moroccan, but being Canadian.
00:22I have all these three identities
00:24that make my brand, Nora Fethe.
00:27And it makes me a unique artist
00:28and a lot of people globally
00:30from different parts of the world can relate to me
00:32and see a little bit of themselves within me.
00:35And I think with my upbringing in Toronto,
00:37being so cosmopolitan,
00:39I've been exposed to different styles of music
00:41from dance hall, Afro, Bollywood, Arabic, hip hop.
00:45I've taken all that and I've injected it within my artistry.
00:53I also make sure the dance styles are very diverse.
00:56So in some videos you may see us do Afro,
00:59in some other videos you might see us do belly dance.
01:02You might see us do strictly Bollywood dance styles,
01:06but I make sure that within the music that I put out,
01:11I also make sure visually the dance styles are very diverse.
01:14And while doing that,
01:16I've gained a huge, large, diverse fan following
01:20that have fallen in love with the type of steps I do,
01:24the hook steps, the choreography.
01:27And I noticed on social media,
01:28people would dance to the music that I put out
01:31and copy the hook steps.
01:33And I'm like, oh my God,
01:34let me create a platform for them on social media.
01:37So I created hashtag dance with Nora,
01:39which allows me to find certain talents
01:43and upcoming young artists.
01:45And even like people who are not even dancers,
01:47but just love to express themselves.
01:50And I post them on my social media.
01:51I share them and we give them a moment for them,
01:54for the world to see them.
01:56And a lot of the people that I've shared
01:59have actually joined me on my stages,
02:01like some of the biggest stages.
02:02Like when I performed for the World Cup in Qatar,
02:06I had some people locally,
02:08young girls who won the hashtag dance with Nora challenge,
02:11join me on stage.
02:13Even for Dubai Expo,
02:14I had this little girl that we selected join me on stage.
02:17And the beauty about that is that after that,
02:19a lot of them get bigger opportunities.
02:22They get scouted, they're seen by producers, directors.
02:26One girl is off doing movies.
02:28The other one is a participant in a big dance show in India.
02:33So it really makes me feel like
02:36it's not just about putting out music,
02:38putting out music videos, doing collaboration.
02:41It really is about giving out energy to the people
02:43for them to enjoy, to be entertained,
02:47to dance, to be happy, to really vibe
02:49and simultaneously create opportunities for youngsters.
02:52Cause we didn't really have those kinds of platforms
02:55and opportunities.
02:55So it always feels like, you know, you're doing good.
02:59So I was born and raised in Toronto.
03:00Went to school there, Westview Centennial,
03:03the beginning of my story.
03:04I went when I was 13, straight from Toronto.
03:08And that was actually the time in my life
03:11where I learned Arabic, the Arab culture,
03:15music, the dancing.
03:17I was exposed to different dialects of Arabic,
03:20made a lot of Arabic friends.
03:22That added one more language to my kitty, right?
03:25So now I'd say like, I speak a couple of dialects of Arabic.
03:29I speak Moroccan, which is called Derija,
03:31speak English, Hindi, French.
03:33So that has helped me in my art majorly,
03:35especially when I do music.
03:37It's also helped me in Bollywood
03:39because a lot of the things that helped with my stardom
03:43in 2018 had a lot of Arabic influence in it,
03:46whether it was the dance, that style that we used
03:49in the movie, or even the clothing.
03:51It really helped me,
03:53because I learned that when I was in Saudi
03:55amongst like a lot of Arabic people.
03:56Being from, my parents are from Morocco,
03:59so there's no India relation whatsoever.
04:02But there was a period in my life
04:04where I felt like it's time to pursue my dreams
04:07and my career.
04:08And I was, at the time, working like multiple jobs.
04:12And then one day I'm like,
04:13enough, I need to focus on my dreams.
04:15I Google, you know, the top agency in Toronto
04:18and the first agency that came up called them.
04:21I'm like, hey, I want to become a star.
04:22How do we do this?
04:24Like, okay, first come to office
04:26and then, you know, we'll take it from there.
04:28And it turned out the agent was a South Asian.
04:32And he, after a couple of meetings,
04:35portfolio, pictures, rehearsals, auditions, et cetera,
04:39he says to me, hey, like I have an opportunity from India.
04:44If you want, you can go there for a couple of months,
04:47try it out and see, because Bollywood is in India
04:50and maybe that's what you need.
04:52And I was like, wow, he's right.
04:54Bollywood has dance, music, acting.
04:56It's a world of all three coming together.
04:59And I was like, yeah, and I was young.
05:01So very ambitious.
05:03I'm like, let's do it.
05:04I'm packing my bags and I'm on the next flight to India.
05:07I think I was so naive because I was like,
05:10yeah, I'm gonna go.
05:11I'm gonna do an audition.
05:12I'm gonna make it.
05:13It's gonna be so easy.
05:14But I didn't even think about the fact
05:16that I need to learn the native language.
05:19And that came to a surprise to me
05:22when I was like going for an audition.
05:24I was chatting up with the driver, like the agency driver.
05:27And he's just like, yeah, you need to learn the language.
05:31So I'm like, why?
05:33Like everybody speaks English.
05:34He's like, no, but Hindi cinema.
05:36If you want to be taken seriously, you need to learn language.
05:38So I was like, okay, I'm up for a challenge.
05:41And I did that.
05:42It took me three years to learn the language,
05:43but I was so serious about it.
05:45And I learned to love it.
05:45I actually really loved the language.
05:48And yeah, I had to.
05:51I really had to otherwise,
05:52because I saw other girls coming from abroad
05:55who tried in the industry and didn't know the language
05:58and they were made fun of.
05:59They weren't taken seriously.
06:00And I never wanted to be the one in their shoes.
06:03It was a journey like from 2014, I would say 2014, yeah.
06:08Lots of auditions, trial and errors,
06:10commercial ads, auditioning for films being rejected,
06:14rejection, nonstop, endless, countless.
06:17But finally, after doing everything under the table,
06:20like I did everything.
06:21I did reality shows.
06:23I don't know if you guys have Big Brother here,
06:25but we have like the Indian version of that.
06:27I've done that.
06:28I've done Dancing with the Stars.
06:29I did every music video under the roof.
06:30I did every appearance in a movie.
06:32I did literally everything.
06:34But I'd say, and that's just because it was the hustle.
06:37You know, I just thought that one day
06:39someone's gonna see me and it's just gonna click.
06:41However, Bollywood doesn't work like that.
06:43Like the formula is you come in,
06:45you do a big movie as a lead
06:47and that's how your career journey goes on.
06:50But I kind of just did it the other way around.
06:52I just did everything.
06:53And 2018 would be the year
06:56that I actually got a very big opportunity in a movie.
07:03And it just clicked for me, July 2018, yeah.
07:07The music video was epic.
07:08We shot it in Morocco, in Marrakesh,
07:10and it has a futuristic Morocco vibe.
07:14Like it's never been seen before.
07:17Even having Jason Derulo like in that whole,
07:20you know, Morocco royalty zone
07:24where he's wearing all that Moroccan outfits
07:26and he's dancing like insane choreography.
07:29I would say the music video is heavy on dance.
07:32Like on my side, on his side.
07:34And we have this crazy hook step together.
07:37And the song is really sexy.
07:39Yeah, I have a collab with CK and it's called It's True.
07:43It's supposed to release in a week or two.
07:46That's very different from my collab with Jason.
07:48My collab with Jason, I'd say visually
07:50and even like audibly, it's exotic.
07:53But with CK, it's more beautiful.
07:57It's more soft.
07:59It has a very romantic energy towards it, yeah.
08:03We haven't done the video yet.
08:04We're looking forward to do that.
08:05But the song is a good mix of Afro,
08:10but with Indian melodies.
08:12Still, obviously, still doing Bollywood.
08:14I want to do both at the same time.
08:16But I'm really excited because we signed
08:18in the beginning of the year.
08:19We did our first writing camp,
08:21which this track Nora came out of,
08:23which released two, three months back.
08:29And we are just gearing up to shoot a crazy song,
08:34which is a remake of an iconic song from the 2000s.
08:38And we're going to shoot that next week.
08:39We're going to release that in November.
08:41Then we have Jason's song.
08:42We have a lineup of some amazing tracks coming out,
08:45but all paired up with visually intense
08:49dance choreography music videos,
08:50which I can't wait for the world to see.
08:53So it is the party to be in.
08:57Every year, especially like for me last year,
08:59I used to see all the updates,
09:01all the news articles, the social media posts.
09:03I'm like, oh my God, I want to be there.
09:04It looks so hype, looks so fun.
09:07Everyone's so glamorous.
09:09And Angela always does a good job
09:11putting everything together and organizing it.
09:14So this year is going to be my first time
09:16being a part of it.
09:17It's my debut.
09:18And at first I thought I'm just going to be like attending,
09:21but then it turned out to be a performance also.
09:23So it's going to be crazy.
09:26I'm going on tour next year, 2025.
09:29That's what we're planning for.