Chris Gayle, who has assigned himself the moniker Universe Boss, which he uses as his musical name, is literally flying the Jamaican flag high across the globe.
From Trinidad, where he was enjoying carnival celebrations, and even gave an on-the-spot performance when Machel Montano passed him the mic while he was in the crowd, Gayle hopped on a plane that took him somewhere in the desert in the Middle East. There he was pictured standing on miles of sand, dressed like a sheikh, interacting with camels and thoroughbreds, and proudly waving his Jamaican flag.
The occasion was a video shoot for a new song, a collaboration with an artiste from India, which will be released in April.
“Chris Gayle spent two days shooting a music video in Dubai with Indian artiste Arko who reached out to him after seeing the success of the album Tropical House Cruises to Jamaica: The Asian Edition which Chris Gayle headlines. The video was shot in the desert as well as in the city with the Burj Khalifa, with the world’s tallest building in the background,” explained Sean ‘Contractor’ Edwards, executive producer of the Tropical House series of albums.
The Asian Edition spent eight weeks on the New York and Florida Reggae Albums chart and peaked at number three.
Gayle shared that he is always delighted for the opportunity to represent Jamaica, whether on the cricket pitch or through music, and also that he was enthusiastic about collaborating with singer, songwriter and musical composer Arko, who has worked in the Bollywood film industry since 2012.
“I feel good about promoting Jamaican culture to the Middle East and India. It was interesting in the desert with the camels and horses and my Jamaican flag. Arko was really fun to work with. We have not named the song yet as we are adding some final touches to the production,” Gayle shared last week.
Arko has an interesting biography, having quit the medical profession to focus on music and film. According to Wikipedia, he interned at Calcutta National Medical College before moving in 2008 to Mumbai, to pursue a career in Bollywood film industry as a music director and singer-songwriter.
“I don’t like to work under pressure and that’s why I left medicine. Art can’t be created made under pressure. You need inspiration and creativity which require time. I believe songs should be created such that listeners feel the lyrics,” Arko told the dailypioneer.com in a 2015 interview.
This is not the first time that world-renowned batsman Chris Gayle is collaborating with an Indian artiste. Jamaica To India, his 2021 collab with Indian rap artiste, Emiway Bantai, has done tremendously well, and the video currently has 67 millions views on YouTube.