Mizoram's four-year-old Esther Hnamte wins over netizens with her cover of AR Rahman's 'Maa Tujhe Salaam'

A four-year-old girl from Mizoram, Esther Hnamte, has become the latest singing sensation on the internet, days after her cover of AR Rahman’s popular song ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ was uploaded on YouTube. Her rendition not only features the scenic beauty of parts of Mizoram but also shows little Esther dressed in skirts and blouses along with traditional Mizo clothing carrying a Indian flag. The video has since then gone viral and has been shared widely on social media platforms. The description of the video clip reads: “Dear brothers and sisters, Be proud that you are an Indian, it is a land of love, care and affection. so lovely the variety in languages, cultures, lifestyle..let us stand together to be good sons and daughters for our motherland inspite of the diversities (sic)”.

Esther hails from College Veng in Lunglei district of Mizoram and has an YouTube account where she showcases her singing ability. The Maa Tujhe Salaam video, posted on 25 October, has been watched by over 2,50,000 YouTube users. She has 62,000 subscribers and her parents have started uploading her song covers only last year. Viewers can find song covers of popular Mizo, English and Hindi music. But Esther only understands her mother tongue, Mizo. While speaking with East Mojo, Esther’s mother shared how she has been singing since she was two years old. As she was young, her pronunciation was not clear but she had no trouble memorising songs. During the COVID-19 lockdown period, Esther’s mother decided to nurture her talent a bit more by practising every day. Soon they recorded her singing at home and created a YouTube handle to share the videos. The great response has only acted as a thrust to their devotion. The mother also explained that the toddler is extremely fast in terms of memorizing entire songs in a day, even when they are in different languages.