X, formerly Twitter, on Friday was flooded with videos from Zohran Mamdani's inauguration ceremony. One of the videos that caught everyone's attention especially in India was the performance of a Punjabi singer during Zohran Mamdani's inauguration ceremony.
Zohran Mamdani brought touches of his South Asian heritage to his formal inauguration as this multicultural city's Mayor on New Year's Day.
While acknowledging his parents during his speech, he also gave a shout-out to relatives in Delhi.
For those who are unaware, Zohran Mamdani is the son of Mira Nair, a movie director, and Mahmood Mamdani, a Columbia University Professor from Uganda, who claims Indian ancestry.
The answer is Babbu famously known as 'babbulicious'. Babbu set the stage on fire with his famous track 'Gaddi Red Challenger'. Mamdani was also seen dancing to the song along with wife Rama Duwaji.
Babbu aka Babbulicious is a Toronto-based Punjabi singer. He enjoys around 185K followers on Instagram.
Babbulicious in an old interview with Red FM had opened up about his life in Canada.
"Music is something I like doing. It's not something I took very seriously. I have a book that I finished, it's a Punjabi alphabet book. I grew up in Canada, so, western influence and here (in India), how do I mix those two. I never knew how to do it. I only thought comedy was the way, and then music was also a way and then art was a way. So, I combined all. Then being able to do English, Spinglish, and mixing Punjabi with English. I grew up speaking English, so in mind English always comes first. But, Punjabi is like I spoke that at home. I grew listening to The Beatles, Daft Punk and Punjabi folk singers."
Other artists who also performed at the ceremony included welcome music from dj mOma, Grammy-winning singer Lucy Dacus performing “Bread and Roses”, Mandy Patinkin and PS22 Chorus of Staten Island performing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, and Babbulicious right at the end.
Mamdani had a trifecta of firsts, as he became the 111th or 112th Mayor (the city is unable to count the number of Mayors before him, and he acknowledged that in his speech).
He is the first Muslim, the first South Asian (as he is generally referred to), and the first born in Africa.
He spent his first five years in Uganda, where he was born, and the next two in South Africa, where his father taught, before landing in New York at the age of seven when the professor joined Columbia University.
He was given the middle name Kwame, after the late Ghanaian president, Kwame Nkrumah, showing his link to Africa.
Mamdani is married to Rama Sawaf Duwaji, an artist and illustrator of Syrian origin.
She was born in the US but spent her childhood in the Persian Gulf countries.
With Inputs: IANS