On Thursday (1st May), legendary singer Sonu Nigam was rudely asked by a fan to sing in Kannada while performing at East Point College in Bengaluru. The singer said he felt “threatened” by the rude demand and stopped his performance to address the language issue, as well as speak about the deadly Pahalgam attack.
A video of the incident went viral on social media. In the video from the concert, Sonu Nigam can be heard saying, “In my career, I have sung in multiple languages but the best songs that I have ever sung is in the Kannada language. Whenever I come to your city, I come with lots of love. We do a lot of shows in a lot of places, but whenever we have shows in Karnataka we come with a lot of respect for you. You have treated me like your family, but I didn’t like when the boy there, who is not even as old as my career, is rudely threatening me to sing in Kannada.”
Sonu Nigam visibly enraged after a young boy from the crowd forced him to sing in Kannada during his live concert in #Bengaluru
— Nabila Jamal (@nabilajamal_) May 2, 2025
Annoyed by the heckle, he hit back calling out rising regional intolerance and warning such behaviour fuels the very divide terror outfits like those… pic.twitter.com/D4RNbj0BFK
Nigam compared the student’s mindless rudeness towards the singer with the Pahalgam terror attack and said, “This is the reason behind the incident in Pahalgam. Please see who is standing before you. I love you guys.”
Expressing his love for Kannada language and his respect towards his audience, Sonu Nigam said, “I do so many shows across the world where thousands of people gather, and every time I hear even a single person shouting ‘Kannada’, I make sure to sing at least one line in Kannada for them. That’s how much I love and respect all of you. So please be kind.”
Notably, Sonu Nigam is a multi-lingual playback singer. In his career spanning three decades, Nigam has recorded many iconic songs in over 32 languages, including Hindi, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Odia, English, Assamese, Malayalam, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Nepali, Tulu, Maithili, and Manipuri.
