Savan Kotecha has written songs for some of the world’s most famous artists.
Those artists include Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, One Direction, Carrie Underwood, Maroon 5 and many others.
His hits down the years have also included smashes for Jessie J (Bang Bang), The Weekend (I Can’t Feel My Face) Demi Lovato (Cool For The Summer), Justin Bieber (Beauty And A Beat), Usher (DJ Got Us Falling In Love) and Ellie Goulding (On My Mind).
He has enjoyed a particularly fruitful creative relationship with Ariana Grande, with/for whom he wrote smashes such as God Is A Woman, No Tears Left To Cry, and Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored.
In total, Kotecha’s songs have attracted 17 Grammy nominations and one Golden Globe nomination, and have fueled tracks that have sold over 375 million copies worldwide.
In addition, Kotecha has won 9 BMI Awards, 13 ASCAP Awards, and two Billboard Music Awards.
“[Writing a hit] Is about distancing yourself from your original idea, and being honest with yourself. Is it actually great, or do you just want it to be great?”
Savan Kotecha
The early portion of Kotecha’s life was spent living in Manassas, Virginia, with two parents who both worked for computer company IBM.
In the first half of the 1990s, Kotecha’s family moved to Austin, Texas, which is where he started playing the keyboard and writing his own songs.
Speaking to Music Business Worldwide in 2017 about the best advice he could pass on to other songwriters, Kotecha said: “It’s about distancing yourself from your original idea, and being honest with yourself. Is it actually great, or do you just want it to be great?
He added: “You hear these stories where writers say: ‘I wrote this song in 10 minutes.’ And yeah, that can happen, but those same people won’t tell you they also wrote 300 other songs that weren’t as good.”
Kotecha’s parents were initially reluctant to let him get involved in music, but after his graduation, they gave him two years to give it a shot. Via a combination of luck and talent, he signed with a music publishing house, and the rest is history.
In 2019, having worked with publishers such as BMG and Kobalt during his esteemed career, Kotecha sold a catalog of 49 of his songs to Hipgnosis Songs Fund for an undisclosed fee.Music Business Worldwide