Alka Yagnik becomes most streamed artiste on YouTube

Alka Yagnik is one of the renowned singers in the Bollywood film industry. The 56-year-old versatile singer has now added another feather to her cap. She has become the most streamed artiste on YouTube, beating global music bands like BTS and Black Pink, and singers like Taylor Swift, Drake and Beyonce.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records statistics, she was the most streamed singer globally with 15.3 billion streams in 2022, which accounts for nearly 42 million per day.

By overtaking rapper Bad Bunny from Puerto Rico, who received 14.7 billion streams, Alka secured the pole position. Data also revealed that she was the most streamed artiste on YouTube in 2020 (16.6 billion streams) and 2021 (17 billion streams).

Alka has given blockbuster hits like ‘Pardesi Pardesi’, ‘Ek Do Teen Char’, ‘Tip Tip Barsa Paani’, ‘Agar Tum Saath Ho’ and ‘You Are My Sonia’. She ruled the Hindi film industry in the 1990s with her groovy numbers and melody ballads.

The Bollywood singer has sung duet songs with Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan, Shaan, Sonu Nigam and others. She has recorded over 20,000 songs for films and albums in her four-decade musical career. She has received two national awards and seven Filmfare awards under the best female playback singer category.

Her songs, including 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai', have also been included in the BBC’s list of top 40 Bollywood Soundtracks of all time.

The other top streamed Indian artistes on YouTube are Udit Narayan (10.8 billion), Arijit Singh (10.7 billion) and Kumar Sanu (9.09 billion), Bhojpuri singer Khesari Lal Yadav, Lata Mangeshkar and Shilpa Raj from India.

Songs from the film Pushpa also figure in the list of the three most listened songs in the world.