Liverpool anthem with Indian classical twist wins hearts and eyeballs on social media | Sports News,The Indian Express

When English Premier League matches resumed two weeks back in England, Malaysia-based lawyer Gurmukh Singh (54) and his family tracked all the action rooting for football club Liverpool to end its 30-year-old drought to lift the EPL title.

As Liverpool wrested the champions crown last week, the family – Gurmukh, his wife Inderjit Kaur, daughters Kavelnain Kaur (21), Gursimer Kaur (19) and son Gurishver Singh (10) — decided it was time for a special tribute. And they did it by performing classical Indian version of Liverpool’s official anthem — “You will never walk alone”.

After Gurmukh Singh posted the video on social media last week, it has got more than 1,30,000 views on Facebook apart from being shared by the official twitter handle of English Premier League’s Indian account, where it has got more than 35,000 views.

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“Like every Liverpool fan, we were bit disappointed when the EPL matches were postponed due to Covid-19 in March. During the Movement Control Order in Malaysia, our family kept making videos about kirtan and posting them on our social media accounts for fellow Sikhs to watch and recite. When the EPL resumed, we were hopeful of Liverpool claiming the title after 30 years and we decided to make a rendition of the Liverpool anthem song when the club won the title last week. We have been overwhelmed by the response to the rendition and glad that it brought smiles and joy to all the Liverpool fans. We hope the players and coach Jurgen Klopp too see our video,” said Gurmukh, who works as an advocate and solicitor in Kuala Lumpur.

The lawyer, whose grandfather Ishar Singh moved to Malaysia in 1930s from a village near Gujranwala in undivided Punjab before Partition, had learnt classical music from his maternal grandfather Giani Gurcharan Singh during his visits to Singapore. While Singh studied law in Malaysia and became an advocate and solicitor, he also performed kirtans in gurdwaras in Malaysia. Singh’s fascination with Liverpool began at the age of 11 and the ardent Liverpool fan also watched the match between Liverpool and Arsenal in the 2009 EPL season at Liverpool’s home ground Anfield.

Gurmukh with his family at Kuala Lumpur.

“While we are third generation Sikhs based in Malaysia, we have not forgotten our roots. When I was a child, I would visit my maternal grandfather at Singapore and he taught me raag and taal vidya. Along with my law practice, I and my wife Inderjit Kaur, who retired as an air-hostess from Malaysian Airlines and now works as a real estate negotiator, also conduct kirtans at gurdwaras and our three children have also learnt classical music. I was 11, when my love for Liverpool started and I remember celebrating when Liverpool won the EPL title in 1990. In 2009, when I watched the EPL match at Anfield, singing ‘You will never walk alone’ with thousands of fans at the stadium, it was something to remember,” recalled Gurmukh Singh.

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In the rendition, which has been composed in Raag Bhopali, Singh introduces his family with him. In the video, he and his daughter Gursimer Kaur are the lead vocalists, daughter Kavelnain Kaur is the back-up singer while managing the keyboard, with son Gurishver is seen playing the tabla wearing a Manchester United scarf.

At the start, Singh introduces his son as a Manchester United fan and recounts his conversion from a Liverpool fan to a Manchester United fan after a trip to his uncle’s place. Singh then also teases his son saying they are in solidarity with Manchester United fans.

“I was bit sad initially when my father told me to play tabla in the video but then I made sure that I wore Manchester United scarf. Hopefully we will next play the rendition of Glory Glory Man United,” says Gurishver.

While Malaysia has seen more than 8,000 cases of Covid-19 with the lockdown easing in the last two weeks, Singh believes that people need to be cautious. “As a fan, sport gives us motivation and moments of happiness but we also have to realise to be aware of all the preventive measures. Malaysia is seeing less cases at present and hopefully situation will improve further and the same in the world,” he concludes.