A poor laborer in Russia has become a YouTube star for his a cappella skillz with Hindi songs. It’s all the more impressive because of the intense racism in Russia toward migrant workers like Tajik Jimmy:

… Mr. [Baimurat] Allaberiyev, widely known as Tajik Jimmy, [is] a migrant worker in a provincial Russian stockroom who delivers astonishing renditions of Bollywood musical numbers… as a younger man [he] herded sheep in his native Tajikistan for a salary of one lamb per month…

Allaberiyev cannot walk through a crowd in the Russian capital without being stopped by fans… the voice seems to come out of nowhere — a clear, warbling Hindi falsetto, complete with percussion and twanging sitar solos. For an impoverished boy growing up on a Tajik collective farm, there was no greater pleasure than Bollywood films, which were approved by the Communist Party as a politically safe diversion…

He was singing in the storeroom at a hardware store in the mall in May 2008 when the store’s head of security filmed him with his cellphone. The guard sent the clip to his brother in Moscow, who posted it online, and Mr. Allaberiyev’s fame blossomed… During an interview with The New York Times he asked for money to replace three teeth that were knocked out in April, when he was attacked by thugs… [NYT]

Allaberiyev’s fame reminds me of the time when a family I was having dinner with in Moscow pulled out an entire dresser’s worth of Bollywood videotapes from beneath their TV, caressing them lovingly. But he won’t long be singing filmi music:

He hopes to position Mr. Allaberiyev as a “world music” star, leaving behind Bollywood imitations for a repertory of Afghan and Central Asian folk songs. [NYT]

He sings both male and female parts as well as beatbox and strings. Here he sings ‘Goron Ki Na Kalon Ki‘ from Disco Dancer. Voilà, his art:

And singing the eponymous ‘Jimmy Aaja’:

YouTube is rife with non-desis singing filmi songs, like a group of Nigerians singing ‘Goron’ at the beach.

Previously: Should I stay or should I go