Music composer Salim Merchant, who is part of the composer duo Salim-Sulaiman, has announced that he will be releasing the song recorded with late singer Sidhu Moosewala. Titled ‘Jaandi Vaar’, the song, featuring Afsana Khan, is due to be released on 2 September.
In a video shared by the composer on Instagram, Merchant shared why he was releasing the song recorded with Moosewala. His post stated how the upcoming song is a a tribute to the singer who was shot dead in Punjab in May. He shared, "A part of the proceeds will go to Sidhu's family. You can own a part of this song by going to Kalakaar.io."
The song was recorded in July 2021 in Chandigarh. Merchant mentions how he met Moosewala through Afsana Khan and Merchant was impressed by Moosewala’s passion for his art and community. They decided to work together.
He describes the track as being a “beautiful, emotional, heart-touching song”. He ends by saying that while Moosewala is no longer amongst us, his voice and his thoughts are in the song and this is the reason why the song is being released as a tribute.
However, Punjabi lyricist and composer Bunty Bains has responded to this move by Merchant by posting an appeal to the music composer to not release the song, as it has not been authorised by the singer’s family.
In his post, Bains has also mentioned that Merchant initially wanted to release the song just three-four days following the death of the singer. He further states, “Furthermore commercialising his [Moosewala’s] vocals as well as his name in the form of NFT [Non-fungible tokens] in addition to offering unlicensed merchandise of Sidhu Moosewala and unlawful use of his e-signature without any prior permissions by tying up with entities such as Kalakaar.io is entirely illegal and infringes the rights at multiple levels and we would advise immediate pull down of all such material.”
Meanwhile, Kalakaar.io has posted a sneak peek into the song on Instagram, which has been reposted by Merchant. So it seems like the composer plans to go ahead with the song's release for now.