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.
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