The One Pound Fish man: everyone's hooked, including Warners

He’s the YouTube sensation who has just signed to Warners and will fight X Factor to be Christmas No 1
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There's a man singing to me across the table at Pizza Hut. But this is no ordinary serenade. He’s been signed by Warner Music this morning and has more than three and a half million hits on YouTube, rivalling voice of the moment Psy, of Gangnam Style fame.

He is known as the One Pound Fish Man, and his manager says he will be up against the X Factor winner for the coveted Christmas number one spot, although he only learned what X Factor is recently. Muhammad Shahid Nazir, 31, left his home in Pakistan a year ago and has never sung professionally before. His is an extraordinary tale of the power of social media.

Type "one pound" into Google and the fourth result is a video of Nazir at Queen's Market, Upton Park. He is wearing a leather jacket and entreating passers-by to buy his fish with a catchy song that's more 1980s music video tribute than traditional market trader call. "Come on ladies, come on ladies," he croons, beckoning at them. "One pound fish. Have-a, have-a look, one pound fish. Very, very good, very, very cheap, one pound fish."

If Nazir seems too endearingly earnest to be a market trader it's because he's only been doing it for eight months. He left his wife and four children, aged nine, seven, five and three, at home in Pattoki, a village outside Lahore, to come live what he calls "the London dream". When he arrived in Heathrow airport with a small bag and no plans other than to get any job he never expected to end up a celebrity, he tells me. The restaurant is the choice of his manager, Raj Roma, who has been in meetings arranging Nazir's contract with Warners all day and hasn't had a chance to eat.

"On my first day at the market my boss said 'You have to shout'," Nazir says. "At first I sung 'One pound fish', straight from my head. The next day I added 'Come on ladies'." Nazir can't say the lyrics without singing them, a now common problem — once heard they are hard to shake. After a week it became a song and a market regular put it on YouTube, where Roma saw it and got in touch.

The refreshing thing is that Nazir doesn't even think he's a good singer, never mind the next Psy. In fact he hasn't heard of the Korean pop sensation and looks baffled when I mention him. "I sing because it is my passion and since childhood people have enjoyed hearing me. But good?" He shakes his head.

Nazir claims not to know the name of the man who filmed him, only that "he's a West Ham fan", but Roma interrupts and says he is called Colin Miller. Once the video was online, "everyone came and said 'It's very catchy, you should be pop star'," says Nazir. "People came from America, Canada, everywhere, wanting my autograph and not buying fish unless I sung. I feel special. I think I'm watching a dream and someone will touch me and I'll wake up."

The rapper Timbaland has done a cover of the song but until a few weeks ago Nazir didn't know who he was either.

There are prettier, less rainy places in the world than London, so why did he come here? Nazir says it is the opportunity that London offers. "Everyone from Pakistan and India wants to come to London. They think life is easy here. It is safe and there are many more opportunities. In Pakistan the law and order situation is not good. We have no good medicines, no good education, no electricity. The people are worried. You feel less safe. There are many unsolved murders and crimes. That's what scares everyone."

He apologises for his broken English and says he is still practising by reading newspapers and Twitter.

In Pakistan, Nazir's brothers work in the family lorry business. He proudly tells me it's called Rajput Goods Transport company and his grandfather founded it 65 years ago. "I realised my three brothers could look after the business, so I came to London. But life is not easy here." All he brought with him was his laptop and some clothes. "I stayed with a friend from Pakistan in Reading for a few days then I came to East Ham. I didn't think about the price of rent. I just wanted a room and wanted to sleep."

He nearly gave up. "When I came here I was alone. I had no one to help me. I decided I would go home to Pakistan. Then God gave me the £1 fish fame, so I'm still here." He likes East Ham: "Green Street is so full of Pakistani people that it's like Lahore."

Although the Christmas number one is now a priority, the singer's "biggest wish" is for his wife and kids to come join him. "I got a marriage proposal from a woman on Twitter but I miss my wife." His wife is also his cousin and they have known each other all their lives. They haven't seen each other since Nazir left Pattoki but speak on Skype every day. Eid was difficult: "I missed Pakistan a lot. Usually we have five days of celebration but I was on the job so didn't do anything. I spoke to my family and the kids said 'Please come back, we are missing you Papa'. Hopefully next Eid we can be together."

Nazir wants his children to have a good education. "One day the problems in Pakistan will be solved but people need better education so they can vote for the right people." He voted in the 2007 election for the popular Pakistani Muslim League but "now in Pakistan the one name is Imran Khan. He is very good and serious. He will change Pakistan I'm telling you. Jemima Khan is also very good." Nazir says he "doesn't have much knowledge of politics in England," and doesn't know who David Cameron is but would like our government to help Pakistan out with advice and visits.

He admires Khan as a cricketer and is very knowledgeable about the sport but since coming to England he has also become a West Ham fan. "I like Rio Ferdinand. He tweeted me and said 'You are a gangster'." Roma tells me Nazir researched the former West Ham player and decided he likes him.

When Nazir is not working he writes and listens to music and practises his English. He likes traditional Pakistani songs but also grew up listening to Michael Jackson and Madonna. What can a devout Muslim who prays every day make of Madonna, I ask? Would he like it if his daughters dressed like her? "Papa don't preach," Nazir laughs in response.

So does he like fish? "I love it. My wife prepares it very well." As we part, Nazir gives me a hearty handshake and asks me to follow him on Twitter. I get on the Tube and head home but that refrain, "Come and have a look, one pound fish", just won't get out of my head.

Watch out Psy, you've got a rival.

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