Jonny Jakobsen (born 17 November 1963) is a Dano-Swedish former Bubblegum dance/eurodance singer better known under his fictitious identity as Indian taxi driver Dr. Bombay. He began as a country singer called Johnny Moonshine, but became famous only after developing the persona of Dr. Bombay. His debut was in 1998 with the album Rice and Curry, hitting the charts with the title track "Rice & Curry", as well as "Calcutta (Taxi Taxi Taxi)" and "SOS (The Tiger Took My Family)". Subsequently, he went on to record albums as faux-Scottish Dr. MacDoo and faux-Mexican Carlito. Even though he grew up in Sweden, his citizenship is Danish.[1] He speaks both Danish and Swedish.
Jonny Jakobsen | |
---|---|
Born | (1963-11-17) 17 November 1963 (age 58) Malmö, Sweden |
Other names |
|
Occupation |
|
Years active |
|
Children | Jimmy Jakobsen |
Musical career | |
Genres |
|
Instrument(s) | Vocals |
Labels | EMI |
Musical artist |
He has gained some fame and notoriety in the Europop scene. Two of his songs have appeared in the Beatmania IIDX series of video games,[2] one of them appeared in Samba de Amigo[3] and another one in Pump It Up PRO 2.
Jonny Jakobsen was born in Sweden on 17 November 1963 to Danish father Ejner Jakobsen and a Swedish mother who died in 1992/3. His twin sister Susanne and him are the youngest of five children. He has two older sisters Vinni and Lis and an older brother Niels. He has a son called Jimmy Jakobsen born in 1983/4.
Before his music career, he was a taxi driver in Copenhagen.
He began his career as a faux-country/pop singer called Johnny Moonshine. As Johnny Moonshine, Jakobsen released one album titled Johnny Moonshine & The Troubled Water Band (1995).[4]
Due to the failure of Johnny Moonshine, Jakobsen moved on in search of a newer, more 'annoying' sound.[5] He chose the style of eurodance, which was just becoming popular in the mid 1990s, and began his career as the fake Indian "Dr. Bombay",[4][dead link] facing controversy along the way.[6] Jakobsen teamed up with Robert Uhlmann, who is famous for his work with Smile.dk
Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
---|---|---|---|
SWE [7] | |||
1995 | Johnny Moonshine & The Troubled Water Band | – |
Jakobsen's earliest career success was prompted by the introduction of the Dr. Bombay character in 1998. In his lyrics, the character is portrayed as an Indian taxi driver, mystic, sitar player, chef, snake charmer and avid fan of elephant racing. He appears clad in traditional Indian garb, such as a kurta and pagri, with the addition of dark glasses that are also worn by the other characters portrayed by Jakobsen.
In 2018 Dr. Bombay celebrated his 20th anniversary with a new single entitled "Stockholm to Bombay". a year later on 5 October 2019 he published a music video for the song "Stockholm to Bombay".[8]
Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
Album | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AUT [7] |
GER [9] |
NOR [7] |
SUI [7] |
SWE [7] | ||||||||||
1998 | "Calcutta (Taxi Taxi Taxi)" | 31 | 28 | 2 | 35 | 1 | Rice & Curry | |||||||
"S.O.S (The Tiger Took My Family)" | — | 30 | 6 | — | 2 | |||||||||
"Rice & Curry" | — | — | — | — | 15 | |||||||||
1999 | "Girlie, Girlie" | — | — | — | — | 46 | ||||||||
"Indy Dancing" | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||
2018 | "Stockholm to Bombay" | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
"—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||
Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
FIN [7] |
NOR [7] |
SWE [7] | |||
1998 | Rice & Curry | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SWE [7] | ||||||||||||||
2000 | "Macahula Dance" | 4 | Under the Kilt | |||||||||||
"Under the Kilt" | 41 | |||||||||||||
"—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||
Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
---|---|---|---|
SWE [7] | |||
2000 | Under the Kilt | 30 |
Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SWE [7] | ||||||||||||||
2005 | "Carlito (¿Who's That Boy?)" | 17 | Fiesta | |||||||||||
2006 | "Fiesta" | — | ||||||||||||
"—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||
Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
---|---|---|---|
SWE [7] | |||
2006 | Fiesta | – | |
2007 | World Wild | – |
| |
---|---|
Studio albums |
|
Singles |
|
Compilations |
General | |
---|---|
National libraries | |
Other |