Kolaveri Di – Tapping into a Global Audience

Posted by: Adhika | Posted on: March 13th, 2012 | No Comments

In a world raging and competing for your attention, bombarding you with ads and content non stop, we come to realize that we are indeed living in a world where the new currency of order is time. The constant blaze and competition for our attention is leading us into a sphere of anxiety, and new expressions of ‘lightness’ naturally appeal to us to soothe our senses!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpW90zXvXtw&feature=fvst[/youtube]

One such phenomena is the release of the viral song Kolaveri Di, an Indian Tamil soup song that instantly went viral when leaked on the Internet. It was composed by Anirudh Ravichander and it was written and sung by Dhanush and was developed for a Tamil cinema movie called ‘3’. Within the first week of being released on Nov 11, 2011 – it instantly was a success with views totalling over 3.5 million hits on YouTube, and had over 1 million shares on Facebook. The song is an International phenomena being played all over the world and breaking numerous musical records. It is a downtempo gaana song, “Why This Kolaveri Di” has been built around a South Indian folk rhythm. Its instrumentation consists of nadaswaram, shehnai, saxophone, urumee and thavil drums, acoustic guitar and keyboards mixed with electronic synths and scratches. The vocals utilize the singing style of Tamil folk culture. Lyrically, the song revolves around the film’s main actor being dumped by his girlfriend; the song is sung by the character in a drunken state, with many of the lines nonsensical.

‘I believe that the simplicity of the lyrics and the fact that all the words but ‘Kolaveri Di’ were in English contributed to the songs success’ Dhanush, Tamil actor & singer

According to the composer Anirudh Ravichander, who composed this song on debut, Why this Kolaveri Di means “why do you have this murderous rage against me?” When asked about the song, he says “It’s the tune that came first. Once I came up with the tune, Dhanush heard and sang the words. The entire process was over in 20 minutes.”On why the Kolaveri Di is called the ‘soup song’, Anirudh says “Soup is a Tamil word used for guys who go through failure in love. Words like these are used by young guys in real life but in a song, we were introducing them. And these words have worked well for Kolaveri Di”Lead actor of 3, the lyricist and singer of the Kolaveri song is Dhanush, who recently won the national award for his performance in Aadukalam. On his twitter page, when several fans were asking for the meaning of the song, he said “Soup song na love failure song. Soup boys na kadhal tholvi adaindha bangam boys. Doubt clear aa ? God bless”. Which in English means “Soup song means failure of love. Soup boys are guys who get rejected in love.

The song is a mega hit for both Tamil natives and Non -Tamil natives alike all over the world, and shows us the universal power of music to affect a global audience!