New Delhi: The Punjab-born, Brampton, Canada-based 26-year-old rapper Shubhneet Singh waded into controversy ahead of his India tour, which was to begin on Saturday, September 23, with a performance on Cordelia Cruises, Mumbai. 


Shub’s old Instagram post has gone viral creating outrage. The post captioned 'Pray for Punjab', along with two folded hands emojis, depicted a map of India without the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and the North-East on it. The singer had shared the post during the Punjab Police hunt for Khalistani terrorist Amritpal Singh. 


Following the outrage, Virat Kohli, who has praised the singer in the past, unfollowed him. He had some time back responded to a song posted by Subh on Instagram, saying: "My favourite artist right now @shubhworldwide and my all-time dancer doing what he does on this song is love. Truly mesmerised." 


After Kohli, cricketers K.L. Rahul and Hardik Pandya also unfollowed the singer who has one million followers on Instagram and 13 million monthly listeners on Spotify. 


Consumer electronics brand boAT also withdrew its sponsorship of his India tour. Explaining its decision, boAT said in a statement on X: "At boAt, while our commitment to the incredible music community runs deep, we are first and foremost a true Indian brand. When we became aware of the remarks made by artist Shubh earlier this year, we chose to withdraw our sponsorship from the tour." 


 




Shubh rose to prominence with his 2021 track, 'We Rollin', which helped him gain a following in the Punjabi diaspora across Canada, the UK, the US, and New Zealand. Then his single, 'Baller', also made it to the Billboard  Canadian Hot 100, ranked No. 68. 


The rapper started in 2021 with the single 'Don't Look' that he co-produced with Punjabi pop artist Irman Thiara. Later, he released his breakthrough single, 'We Rollin', which is till date his most streamed song. Next to follow were 'Elevated' and 'Offshore'. 


Earlier this year,  Shubh released his debut album 'Still Rollin', which ranked No. 16 on the Billboard Canadian charts.