Sri Lankan singer, songwriter, and rapper Yohani Diloka De Silva’s hit track ‘Manike Mage Hithe’ became a social media sensation, with many celebrities including Amitabh Bachchan, Tiger Shroff, Madhuri Dixit, Parineeti Chopra, Krystle D'Souza posting videos to the track.
Yohani is now all set to perform in India at Gurugram on 30 September and in Hyderabad on 3 October. In an Instagram post, Yohani shared, “I have ALWAYS wanted to perform in India and I can't believe it is finally happening! The love shown to 'Manike Mage Hithe', still baffles me.”
‘Manike Mage Hithe’ is originally a Sinhala song originally sung by Satheesan and Dulax ARX who invited Yohani to sing the cover version of the song. While the song is clearly all the rage in India, the song also has an international audience. A Twitter user recently shared a video of a violinist, recognised as Karolina Protsen, on the streets of USA, performing an instrumental version of ‘Manike Mage Hithe’.
The song, which released in May, currently has over 120 million views on YouTube, and has been adapted into Hindi, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Bengali, and other languages, which several of those versions also going viral on the internet. ‘Manike Mage Hithe’, owing to its simple yet refined melody, and catchy hook, became an instant viral sensation.
Yashraj Mukhate, who was behind the ‘Rasode Mai Kaun Tha?’ craze, had shared a cover of the song on Instagram. “Discovered this beautiful Sri Lankan song last night,” he wrote.
The song soon became one of the most famous Instagram reel audios in India. After Mukhate’s version, Adarsh Ray released a Bengali version to the song, named, ‘Tor Chokher Kajole Hay’.
A father-daughter duo from Medinipur, West Bengal adapted ‘Manike Mage Hithe’ to ‘Ma Mati Manush Hithe,’ in a tribute to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The track is an ode to the Bengali political slogan Ma Mati Manush (Mother, Motherland, People) coined by CM Mamata.
Bihari Gypsy Soul dropped the Bhojpuri version of ‘Manike Mage Hithe’ wherein he’d replaced the Sinhala rap, sung by rap artist Satheeshan in the original, with Bhojpuri lyrics.
Singers Parthiv Gohil and Yashita Sharma lent their voices to a Gujarat version of the song. While most renditions kept the Sinhala lyrics intact, their rendition is entirely in Gujarati, retaining the song’s soulful melody.
Gohil told ETimes, that the song was recommended to them by his programmer. “After hearing the song, Yashita and I instantly wanted to make a Gujju version of it," Gohil revealed.
Musician Santvani Trivedi is another artiste who heard the Sri Lankan song and “wanted to do something with it that has never been done before in Gujarati music industry.” In her rendition, she created a mashup of ‘Manike Mage Hithe’ with a folk song ‘Rim Jhim,’ singing the entire version herself.
The ‘Manike Mahe Hithe’ will soon perform live in Gurgram and Hyderabad as part of Supermoon #NowTrending.
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