Shakira beats Rahman

Online, the maestro's Games anthem is nowhere as popular as the Colombian singer's composition

This will prove a bigger hit than Shakira's Waka Waka, double Oscar winner AR Rahman had claimed at a preview of his anthem for 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.


Tuned out: Rahman's 'Yaaro India Bula Liya' has failed to match the
popularity of Shakira's 'Waka Waka'

However after it was finally unveiled, "Yaaro India Bula Liya", failed to create the right vibes, eliciting a mixed response from Rahman's fans worldwide. While commending him for his effort, Rahman's fans have said that they expected a better song from a composer of his stature.

As far as the comparison with Waka Waka, the theme song for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, is concerned, Rahman's song has not been able to make as big an impression as Shakira's catchy video did, online.
Google Trends, which provides insights into broad search patterns online, shows that the top four searches from India are of the Commonwealth theme song on August 29. But it failed to help it attain any position in the global top 10 on August 30.

However, the song is gaining popularity on the world's largest video sharing site, Youtube, as the top 10 searched songs include six searches for the Commonwealth song.

Interestingly, around 50,897 people have downloaded the song from soundcloud.com the link, which was shared by AR Rahman through his Twitter profile. But according to experts the song could not even come close to the impact made by Waka Waka.u00a0

Shakira's song for the soccer world cup has attracted over 169,153,733 views on the Youtube since it was uploaded on June 4 earlier this year. The official Waka Waka video posted on the ShakiraVEVO channel ranked fourth in YouTube's All Time Most Viewed chart. Shakira's Time for Africa has also earned more popularity with over 168,000 comments and is ranked 54th for YouTube's all-time Most Discussed video.

And it's not just male fans, a late survey indicated that the video was mainly viewed by female users on YouTube between the ages of 13 and 17 rather then by men around their 40's.

The search trend for the last seven days of keywords Shakira and Rahman also reflect that the search volume of the word "Shakira" is almost three times that of "Rahman" in India. Worldwide, the volume of search for keyword "Rahman" is merely nine per cent of that of "Shakira".

The trends for the last seven days also shows that the volume of the Commonwealth theme song is picking but it is yet to reach five per cent of the search volume of Waka Waka.

Cyber expert feels that gradually the Rahman theme song will start picking up with more promotional events and during the Games but it cannot become as big as Waka Waka. "Anything interesting on Internet spreads like wild fire. Seeing the trend it is clear that Rahman's theme song is getting popular but rate of downloads and search volume is very low when compared to Waka Waka. The popularity of the song will also depend on the success of the CWG games," said Vivek Vohra, a Delhi-based Internet expert.

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The song, which can be downloaded from the Internet, begins with lilting strains before wild guitar riffs take over to set an eccentric mood.
Penned primarily in Hindi, the number is also laced with English hip- hop lyrics for a contemporary feel. World music whiffs combine with folksy drum beats as Rahman creates a tune that aims to be universal in spirit.
Brouhaha over the quality of the song started some time ago when Rahman presented the number before the Group of Ministers ( GoM) on the Games in the Capital. He was then asked to tweak it before the opening ceremony.

Rs 5.5 cr Money paid to Rahman for composing the theme song