Clinton Cerejo

Clinton Cerejo is known for his contributions in the music department for Indian films. His range of work includes playback singing, vocal arrangements, musical arrangements, background scores, music programming, production. His unique style and musical enthusiasm has attracted various collaborations with many leading Indian composers.

Life

Clinton Cerejo was born into an academically inclined family with no known musical background. His father was an engineer at L&T and mother is a French professor. His elder brother is a software professional and his younger sister is an editor for medical journals in the U.S.

He completed his graduation in Commerce from Poddar College in Mumbai and was on his way to pursue a degree in M.B.A before his friends convinced him of his musical talent. The prospect of doing a desk job for the rest of his life was not very inviting and Clinton opted to pursue a career in the music industry. His family found this choice a bit radical and were skeptical about it, but as he later put it "I guess they just didn’t want to see me starve".

During his younger days, he was influenced by great producers such as Quincy Jones, Trevor Horn, Arif Mardin, Stevie Wonder, Babyface, Hugh Padgham, Peter Gabriel, Roland Orzabal, Roy Thomas Baker.

Clinton married Dominique, who was his college friend. Dominique Cerejo is an upcoming singer. Her melodious rendition of Ye Tumhari Meri Baatein from Rock On!! has been hugely popular.

Career

Clinton started off by participating in college festivals and making a quick buck with recordings for colleges.

Back in college days, he would often do jam sessions with his friend Siddharth Haldipur (of Band of Boys fame). It was on one such session that Amar Haldipur (Siddharth's father), who is a famous arranger and violinist, noticed Clinton and took a liking to his voice. Amar introduced Clinton to Anand Modak, the music director of a Marathi film Mukta and soon he was performing his first song in a recording studio. It was an English song for a Marathi film, picturised on an African-American.

After a series of sporadic recordings, he started lending his voice to many advertisement jingles. During this period he worked with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Lezz Lewis, Ranjit Barot & Louis Banks. Some of his contemporaries at that time were K.K. and Kunal Ganjawala, who went on to become playback singers. Clinton and Kunal sang a lot of jingles together.

Realizing that his voice was not versatile enough to be a successful jingle singer, he started looking at other areas of interest.

Since his college days, Clinton always took a keen interest in the texture of a song and all the elements that went into producing it. This pulled him towards production/arranging. Not being too picky about the production assignments, he started off with small films and remix albums. By word of mouth, one thing led to another and his work was recognized.

A. R. Rahman, while working in an adjoining studio, happened to overhear one of Clinton's vocal arrangements for a song and when they met a month later, A. R. Rahman offered Clinton the opportunity to work with him. Soon his work was noticed by many and other projects followed.

Eventually Clinton went on to work with many leading Indian music composers performing various roles in the music department.

Discography

Singer

Year	Album	Composer	Songs
2011	RockStar  (Hindi)	A.R.Rehman	"Sadda Haq"
2011	Bodyguard  (Hindi)	Pritam Chakraborty	"I love you"
2011	Pyar Ka Punchnama  (Hindi)	Clinton Cerejo, Hitesh Sonik	"Baanware"
2011	7 Khoon Maaf  (Hindi)	Vishal Bhardwaj	"O' Mama" (Rap Vocals) "Doosri Darling"
2011	Veppam  (Tamil)	Joshua Sridhar	"Oru Devadai"
2010	Kanimozhi  (Tamil)	Satish Chakravarthy	"Penne Pogathey" "Thada Thada Endru"
2010	Karthik Calling Karthik  (Hindi)	Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy	"Hey Ya!" "Hey Ya! (Remix)"
2010	Ishqiya  (Hindi)	Vishal Bhardwaj	"Dil To Bachcha Hai (Remix)"
2009	All the Best: Fun Begins  (Hindi)	Pritam	"Kyun"
2009	Wake Up Sid!  (Hindi)	Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy	"Kya Karoon"
2009	Siva Manasula Sakthi  (Tamil)	Yuvan Shankar Raja	"Eppadio Matikittaen"
2009	Luck  (Hindi)	Salim-Sulaiman	"Aazma - Luck Is The Key"
2009	Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam  (Telugu)	Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy	"Egire Egire"
2008	Vaaranam Aayiram  (Tamil)	Harris Jayaraj	"Oh Shanthi"
2008	Yuvvraaj  (Hindi)	A. R. Rahman	"Dil Ka Rishta"
2007	Sunday  (Hindi)	Amar Mohile	"Sunday Theme"
2007	Partner  (Hindi)	Sajid-Wajid	"Do U Wanna Partner"
2006	Omkara  (Hindi)	Vishal Bharadwaj	"Beedi"
2006	Kalvanin Kadhali  (Tamil)	Yuvan Shankar Raja	"Ivan Kattil"
2006	Happy  (Telugu)	Yuvan Shankar Raja	"Chal Chal Re"
2005	Neal 'n' Nikki  (Hindi)	Salim-Sulaiman	I'm In Love "I Just Wanna Spend My Life With You"
2004	Manmadhan  (Tamil)	Yuvan Shankar Raja	"Thathai Thathai"
2003	Darna Mana Hai  (Hindi)	Salim-Sulaiman	"Homework"
2003	Boys  (Tamil)	A. R. Rahman	"Secret Of Success" "Please Sir"
2003	Bhoot  (Hindi)	Salim-Sulaiman	"Ghor Andhere"
2001	One 2 Ka 4  (Hindi)	A. R. Rahman	"One 2 Ka 4"
2000	Kandukondain Kandukondain  (Tamil)	A. R. Rahman	"Smayiyai"
2000	Alaipayuthey  (Tamil)	A. R. Rahman	"Endendrum Punnagai" "Pachchai Nirame" "Maangalyam"
1999	Taj Mahal  (Tamil)	A. R. Rahman	"Thirupaachi"

Composer

Year	Album	Notes
2005	Jawani Diwani  (Hindi)	Clinton composed the title track for this album which was sung by Bobby Moon

Music Producer

Year	Album	Album Artist
2011	7 Khoon Maaf	Vishal Bhardwaj
2010	Ishqiya	Vishal Bhardwaj
2009	Kaminey	Vishal Bhardwaj
2007	Come One Come All	The Fine (band)
2006	Omkara	Vishal Bhardwaj

External links

• Clinton Cerejo at the Internet Movie Database
• In Conversation with Clinton Cerejo - Music Aloud's interview
• Clinton Cerejo: The mehnat behind the music - An exclusive Drift interview
• Rediff interview with Clinton Cerejo

Persondata
Name	Cerejo, Clinton
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