Almost a month after Sidhu Moosewala’s death, the singer’s track SYL has been released on YouTube and other music streaming platforms.
Written and composed by Moosewala before he was shot dead in May, the new song was released by music producer MXRCI on Friday.
Since its debut, the song has amassed over 23 million views on the Google-owned video streaming platform and received 3.1 million likes.
The song’s title refers to the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal. The canal is of historical and political significance as it has been a bone of contention between Punjab and Haryana for several decades. The state of Punjab has been demanding a reassessment of its share of the water of the Ravi-Beas rivers while Haryana has been seeking completion of the canal to get its share. The late singer’s posthumously released song addresses this dispute.
Sidhu, whose real name was Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Punjab's Mansa district on May 29. His murder is under investigation and several arrests have been made by Delhi Police in connection with the incident.
The Punjabi rapper enjoyed a huge following in India with songs like So High, Same Beef, The Last Ride and Just Listen. Recently his song 295 made it to the Billboard Global 200 Chart. The track was listed at the 154 spot on June 17. The song has over 44 million streams on Spotify and its viewership number on YouTube has gone past the 200 million mark.
Moosewala’s murder had shocked the Indian film and music community with scores of artists paying tribute to the singer on social media. Condolences were also shared by international musicians. From the global music community, Canadian rapper Drake had condoled Sidhu’s death. Canadian comedian Lilly Singh also called Moosewala a “legend” while paying tribute to his “revolutionary music”.
