Savan Kotecha

### Associated Acts

Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Usher, Enrique Iglesias, Carrie Underwood, Britney Spears, One Direction, Justin Bieber, Shontelle, Adam Lambert, Leona Lewis, Cher Lloyd, Alexandra Burke, Westlife, Katy Perry, Shayne Ward, Hilary Duff

### Website

www.kananisongs.com

**Savan Harish Kotecha** is a Grammy and Golden Globe nominated American songwriter and record producer.

He co-wrote One Direction's debut single "What Makes You Beautiful", and went on to write fourteen more songs for the band from 2011 to 2013.

## Background

Kotecha was born in Austin, Texas and is of Gujarati Indian descent.

## Musical Career

He worked as an *X Factor* vocal coach in 2010, where he was introduced to One Direction. Kotecha made a video with the band, singing a song he wrote titled "Vas Happenin' Boys".

Kotecha spoke about the songwriting process behind "What Makes You Beautiful" in 2013, stating "I had the melody of the chorus in my song for about a year until I was in a hotel room in London with my wife and she was having a bad morning. She was like, "Oh, I feel so ugly" and I was like, "No, you look beautiful. You don’t know how beautiful you look." And I was like, "Oh, crap! That’s a good song! Hold on!" And I wrote that down. I actually wrote the song for my wife, so I went to the studio and it took a process of a couple weeks to really tweak it, but the core of it was written within two days and then tweaked a few things here and there over a couple weeks, but I mean, I still have the text message from Harry Styles. When he heard the demo, I was in Miami on my way back to Sweden, and he sent me a text message saying, "I think you got it. I think you got the one here." In 2016, he shared a screencap of the message from Harry, on his official Instagram, to celebrate the five year anniversary of the song's release.

Kotecha has co-written such hits as Demi Lovato's "Cool for the Summer", "Confident", "Really Don't Care" and Ariana Grande's "Problem", "Break Free", "Love Me Harder", "One Last Time", and "Focus" among others. The recipient of 9 BMI Awards 9 ASCAP Awards and 2 Billboard Music Awards, Kotecha’s songs have achieved number-one status all over the world, having sold more than 200 million copies.

Kotecha was featured on the American version of Simon Cowell's *The X Factor* as a vocal producer, a role reprised from the original UK show. He also was the vocal coach for X Factor contestants who passed the first stage.

## Credits

### One Direction

*Up All N​ight*

* "What Makes You Beautiful" — lyricist, composer
* "Na Na Na" — lyricist, composer
* "One Thing" — lyricist, composer
* "Up All Night" — lyricist, composer
* "I Wish" — lyricist, composer
* "Save You Tonight" — lyricist, composer

*Take ​Me H​ome*

* "Live While We're Young" — lyricist, composer
* "Kiss You" — lyricist, composer
* "Last First Kiss" — lyricist, composer
* "Heart Attack" — lyricist, composer
* "Change My Mind" — lyricist, composer
* "Back For You" — lyricist, composer
* "Magic" — lyricist, composer
* "Still The One" — lyricist, composer
* "Nobody Compares" — lyricist, composer

*Midnight Memories*

* "Happily" — lyricist, composer

## External Links

* @Savan\_Kotecha — Twitter
* Savan Kotecha — IMDb
* Savan Kotecha — Wikipedia
* Savan Kotecha — Facebook

## References

1. ↑ 2013 Interview
2. ↑ Instagram Pic