UAE-based Indian teen spreads COVID-19 awareness in 22 languages

Dubai, May 9  A United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Indian teenager is spreading COVID-19 awareness in 22 languages by singing and composing songs, a media report said on Saturday.

Calling herself a COVID-19 warrior, Suchetha Satish, 14, has recorded the awareness songs, written by her mother Sumitha Ayilliath, in Arabic and 21 Indian languages, the Khaleej Times said in the report.

Her song in Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Assamese was also released by the Kerala government.

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

Suchetha released her first song on COVID-19, titled “Say No To Panic” in English on March 16.

Later, she released her second song in her mother tongue Malayalam to create awareness among the large Keralite 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… I took inputs from my father to give authentic information and thus the song was made. The recording was done in my home studio…,” the Grade 10 student of Indian High School, Dubai said.

The lyrics of the song urge people to “keep the distance, keep cleanliness and make it a habit to wash hands”, said the Khaleej Times report.

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.