New Delhi: A video of a Maltese singer crooning a Bangla song on the streets of Valletta, the capital city of the European island nation, has created a buzz on social media, with people marvelling at the artiste’s fluency in a foreign language.
The video was posted on Facebook and YouTube by a user named Saiful World on November 9, and has since been shared by several people.
While the video on YouTube has garnered around 15,000 views, the same reshared by a Facebook page, ‘LIFE IN Europe’, has recorded over 2.5 lakh views and nearly 250 comments.
The song, ‘Chalo na ghure aashi ajanate’, is a famous number originally sung by late Bangladeshi rock singer and songwriter Happy Akhand.
The singer in the video appears to be Benny Grima who regularly performs as a busker in the Malta capital.
In a 2018 interview to Newsbook.com.mt, a Maltese website, Grima said he prefers singing on the streets of Valletta to performing in hotels. He also said that he could sing in Chinese, Polish and Hindi, and that he picked up other languages by performing on the streets.
According to the website, 1954-born Grima comes from a family of musicians.
Listen to the song here.
About Happy Akhand And ‘Chalo Na Ghure Aashi’
Happy Akhand, known as the Prince of Bangladeshi music, was considered a musical prodigy. He was among the founding members of the rock band, Miles, and one of the pioneering rock musicians in Bangladesh.
According to a report in The Daily Star, Happy Akhand died in 1987, at the young age of 27. Together with brother Lucky Akhand, they are “remembered as two of the greatest exponents of Bangladeshi Pop music”, the report said.
Lucky Akhand died in 2017.
The song, ‘Chalo Na Ghure Aashi’, has dominated the pop genre in Bangladesh ever since it was created, and is considered to be the most famous song that Happy Akhand ever sang, according to the report.