Expat teen singer spreads coronavirus awareness in UAE in 22 languages

A 14-year-old Dubai student is spreading awareness on Covid-19 in 22 languages by singing and composing songs.

Calling herself a Covid-19 warrior, Suchetha Satish has been recording the Covid-19 awareness song - written by her mother Sumitha Ayilliath - in Arabic and 21 Indian languages. Her song in Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Assamese were also released by the Kerala government as part of its 'Break the Chain' campaign. It will be used in Kerala's public awareness programme as there are large number of migrant workers from these places.

Suchetha is a double world record holder for singing in most languages in one concert and the longest live singing concert by a child.

Talking about what led the Grade 10 student of Indian High School, Dubai, to come out with the time, I told them to take precautions and preventive measures. And one day she came up with this idea to write and sing an awareness song on the virus."

Suchetha released her first song on Covid-19 in English on March 16. The song was titled Say No To Panic. Later on, she released her second song in her mother tongue Malayalam to create awareness among the large Malayali community here in the UAE.

"Music has always been my language of effective communication. With help from my mother Sumitha, I did the lyrics and composed the whole song. My mum helped me with the editing of the video. I took inputs from my father to give authentic information and thus the song was made. The recording was done in my home studio. It took us about four days for the entire process. When he saw the final product, my dad encouraged me to upload it on my Twitter and Youtube channel and before long many people had seen it and send me their blessings and support," she said.

The lyrics of the song urge people to "keep the distance, keep cleanliness and make it a habit to wash hands".

Talking about what encouraged her, Suchetha said: "It was a report on my Malayalam song that caught the attention of the Kerala Social Security Mission which urged me to record it in the languages of the migrant labourers there. I then recorded it in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Assamese."

Following a good response on all social media platforms and with the encouragement of her family and friends, Suchetha decided to go ahead to record it in many other Indian languages, including Kannada,Tulu, Konkani, Marathi, Gujrati, Rajasthani, Sindhi, Himachali, Odiya, Manipuri, Nepali, Urdu, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Telugu, Kashmiri and Sanskrit. While the original lyrics for this song was written by her mother Sumitha Ayilliath, music was given by Prashanti Chopra and the orchestration was done by upcoming musician Denzil Tom, her father told Khaleej Times.

The lyrics, her father said, were translated into other languages by the numerous well-wishers and friends of Suchetha. The Arabic lyrics translation was done by noted Emirati poet Dr Shihab Ghanem.

Satish added: "The songs are available on the social media in YouTube, Twitter and Facebook accounts of Suchetha Satish. Her awareness songs in Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, Bengali and Arabic will be of great use here in the UAE to spread awareness as our health depends on the level of awareness of one and all."

saman@khaleejtimes.com