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INDIAN expatriate and musical talent Hashim Rahman has dropped the first of his two singles promoting world peace, a part of his broader peace campaign, which is captivating his 26,000-plus fans on YouTube.
The Hindi language composition entitled Oh God!! Peace was unveiled during the campaign held last week and features renowned Urdu poet Shahid Meer’s verses and revered Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s quotes. Together, they bring alive the story of an artist who is upset about war and, through prayer, ‘debates’ with God.
“Our world has witnessed discord and war, which inspired me to do something to promote world peace,” the 39-year-old, who also stars in the song’s promotional video, told GulfWeekly.
“I had the idea for a peace campaign where we come together as a community and participate in various activities to promote world peace. I am grateful to all those who participated in making this dream a reality.”
The peace campaign was hosted at Kerala Catholic Association’s premises and also included painting and charity activities.
The creative from Riffa got together with Indian expatriate and media man Hariz Ekkachu to film the song, which has ‘visual elements of war and peace’. The promotional video was shot at various locations in Bahrain, including Sitra and Karranah beaches. Reputed talents from the Malayalam film industry based in Kerala, India are also part of the team.
The second, Malayalam language track Hope is set to release next month.
Hashim has been living in Bahrain with his wife for the last 12 years and they have two children. The category manager who works at Nass foods has led many creative projects in the past, a major one being Rafi Resurrection, which is an ongoing initiative to blow new life into the yesteryear ‘evergreen’ Indian playback singer Mohammed Rafi’s songs.
“Seven of the tracks have featured on Malayalam musical channels like Manorama Music and Millennium Audios and the eighth one Yaad will be out on my YouTube channel next month,” the 2017 first runner-up of Voice of Kerala FM’s Gulf region singing competition said.
Hashim has been serenading audiences in Bahrain and Kerala since 2018 but his tryst with music began at the tender age of 10.
Speaking about future plans he announced that he will be releasing two new original singles this year – Mizhi Chayun, meaning ‘eyes decline’, and Neela Vaanil or ‘in the blue sky’ – both Malayalam.
Hashim’s work can be found across audio streaming platforms like Gaana, Spotify, and iTunes, and on his YouTube channel Hashim Rahman Official.
