Musician Mithoon discusses the countless remakes of his song Tum Hi Ho and how it annoys him that artists don’t pay attention to the compositions and their specifics.
Remaking classic songs has always been controversial, and typically the recreated versions draw criticism from both listeners and the original singers and composers.
The fact that YouTubers, influencers, and content producers alter his songs into covers irks music composer Mithoon.With reference to the hit tracks like Tum Hi Ho from Aashiqui 2, the musician states that he had lost count of how many times hia songs has been remade.
“There are Hindustani recitals of the song, violin covers, flute covers and so on. At one point, the American artiste T-Pain also picked up the melody and reproduced the song, after which we had reached out to him legally because we didn’t obtain official rights. I understand you can’t control such things after a point, but definitely it’s not that I accept all of those versions, because many of them are not even properly done,” elucidates Mithoon.
He thinks that there is a “certain spirit and detailing” of the song which should not be fabricated. He added, “I’m not getting into the legality or licencing, but I know that all the original credits have to be given priority before any kind of reinterpretation is done. And even then, there is something that is sacrosanct and divine about the melody of the song, which should not be touched.”
“There’s a word in my song which is very uncanny, it’s Kyunki. It comes right before Tum hi Ho. It’s not a very musical word and the way I wrote it, it’s supposed to be a catalyst between the line before that and then going into the chorus,” he adds on, “But in 90% of the covers, I’ve observed that word is never sung the way it is supposed to be sung. And that bothers me. I know it’s not a crime and only a few people will get it right, while others won’t. But if a recreation is not done right, it definitely is not my song.”
When asked about recreation of original music, he says, “We all know very well that original music is what actually inspires us — listeners and creators. Maybe five years ago, this was really the trend. People were really talking about this. At present, there is enough original content coming out and I personally believe in creating fresh music. That’s what gave us Sanam Re, Aashiqui, or Kabir Singh,” he says, further adding, “I have no reason to take the route of the recreations myself, unless it’s done for a thematic reason.”
