Moosewala’s 1st posthumous song gets 18mn+ views in a day
FARIDKOT: With more than 15 million (1.5 crore) views in just 19 hours, SYL, the posthumously released song of singer-politician Sidhu Moosewala who was killed last month, talks about the deep-rooted controversial issues of Punjab that are strongly bonded with state politics.
Trending as number one on YouTube, where it was released from Moosewala’s official account at 6pm on Thursday, e a day after it was leaked on social media, the video has got 2.3 mil lion (23 lakh) likes on YouTube. The song is being widely shared on Instagram, where the singer was popular with 10.6 million followers. Moosewala’s Instagram saw a rise of 3 million followers after his death; the singer had around 7 million followers on the social media platform. The teaser of the song uploaded on Instagram has garnered more than 8 million views since its release a day ago.
The first song released after the death of singer-politician Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popular as Moosewala, is focused on the more than four-decade-old politically complex issue of the construction of the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal (SYL). Unlike his previous songs that glorified the gun culture, this song talks about events Punjab has witnessed since 1947.
Striking a sensitive note, apart from the SYL row with neighbouring Haryana, the singer has talked about the post-Independence undivided Punjab, sovereignty, 1984 riots, Sikh prisoners’ release, and the incident of the Khalsa flag at Red Fort during the farmers’ agitation.
The song ends with the mes
sage: “Each one of you is the last hope for protecting Punjab’s river waters to prevent the state from turning into a desert.”
Moosewala was shot dead on May 29 at Jawahar Ke village in Punjab’s Mansa district a day after the Punjab government curtailed his security cover.
Earlier, Moosewala’s family appealed to music producers not to share or release any of the singer’s unfinished tracks with anyone except his father Balkaur Singh.
During the last rites ceremony at Mansa earlier this month, Balkaur Singh said that he will keep Sidhu alive through his songs for at least the next six to seven years. After Moosewala’s murder, his father would be taking the final call on his pending and unreleased works.
According to his family, some more songs which will be released in the future accordingly. “Few are completed but there are some which were unfinished. So, it will be planned with the music team on how to handle his work. Moosewala has left behind a number of finished songs and unfinished work in writing,” a family member said.
According to his family, Moosewala completed the audio recording of SYL, while the video shoot conceptualisation was in progress when he was killed. He was scheduled to visit Canada for his concerts this summer and the plan was to release the SYL song just before that during the Sangrur by-election.