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Indian rapper Badshah dethrones BTS as most-viewed video

It's India vs Korea as Badshah's ‘Paagal’ smashes 75 million YouTube views in 24 hours, beating a record previously held by BTS's ‘Boy with Luv’

By Jon Chapple on 15 Jul 2019

Indian rapper and Bollywood composer Badshah has broken YouTube’s 24-hour viewing record with new single ‘Paagal’, according to his label, Sony Music India.

‘Paagal’ was viewed more than 75 million times within a 24-hour period after being released on 10 July. The record was previously held by K-pop colossi BTS, for ‘Boy with Luv’ featuring Halsey, which reached 74.6m views in April. Taylor Swift’s ‘Me’, featuring Brendan Urie, holds the same record for a solo artist, with 65.2m views.

Shridhar Subramaniam, Sony Music’s president, India and the Middle East, says: “This is an unprecedented feat and we are very proud. This will go down history as Badshah becomes the first Indian artist to reach 75m views in 24 hours. In our collective pursuit of being on top of the charts, we know we have fought our way to the top.”

In an Instagram post (h/t Music Ally), suggested he owes the song’s success to Sony’s bulk-buying Google ads in multiple territories, explaining: “we bought AdWords all around the world so that people could see the video all around the world”.

At press time, ‘Paagal’ had been viewed more than 95m times.

 


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