Harvey Leigh Cantwell aka HRVY, is the guy of every teenage girl’s dream. With sky blue eyes and a ruffled blonde hairdo, the 19-year-old lad is a fountain of talent. Dressed in a pair of torn jeans and a dark blue kurta, seated at the Bottomline Media office a day after his sold-out performance at Hard Rock Cafe many who attended the show labelled HRVY’s sold-out debut performance in the city as astounding. While his name is on every teen’s lips, we can’t but help ask, why it’s HRVY and not his real name. “My team thought we might take out the vowels ‘a’ and ‘e’, and see how it sounds and make my name sound a bit different. It just stuck” reveals the young lad from Kent, England.
HRVY is today one of the most searched singers with his video Personal clocking about 50 million views to date. His songs Phobia, Holiday and the latest single Personal are hot favourites with teens, with their lyrics, most stemming from HRVY’s personal life experiences. “Well the songs are a little bit of my own experiences, like Personal has a line about my ex girlfriend, with a line… you used to flirt with your friends. And I guess a lot is also made up”.
Music got his fancy at a young age and by the time he was 13, he decided that music was what he wanted to do. “I had posted a cover of a song on Facebook called ‘Simply Amazing’ by Trey Songz. My manager thought I should make a video of it with me singing in it and yeah that’s how it really clicked”.
HRVY is a social media sensation, but before his fame, HRVY was a presenter on BBC’s ‘Friday Download’. After that, he took to social media and released his first EP Holiday on 25th July 2017.
HRVY is happy to be in India, even its only 5 days. “It’s amazing to see such a diverse culture. I love the people, they’re so friendly. I have heard a lot of Bollywood and I want to see some of Shah Rukh Khan movies before I go or take some DVDs with me. I take memories of the people, life on the streets, everything around me, the food. I want to try some street food, especially the dosa”.
– By Verus Ferreira
