Dubai: An Indian woman in Dubai has completed her record bid to sing 1,000 songs in 1,000 days, with all songs written, composed, sung and recorded entirely by her.
Swapna Abraham, 48, has been recognised by the Golden Book of World Records for four awards, including the “quotidian feat of composing, producing and publishing a song ‘live’ incessantly for 1,000 days from April 8, 2017 to January 2, 2020.”
She is also going to apply to the Guinness World Records for “the most number of songs in a digital album.”
In reality, she has sung more than 1,000 songs a day as she also sung an additional song for children over the 1,000 consecutive days - plus a third, fourth, or fifth song on many of the days. Once she even managed to complete 22 songs in one day.
‘Felt unfulfilled’
Abraham, who works for a management consulting firm in Dubai, said she wanted to end her decades-long music career by, ironically, singing 1,000 songs in 1,000 days.
“After doing music professionally for 24 years and publishing 22 albums, I still felt I was very unfulfilled as a musician, as an artist. I couldn’t understand what it was. So I made a decision to give up music for good and almost immediately after that I told myself I want to do one more very difficult thing and then I will give it up. And that’s when I decided I would do a song a day for 1,000 days,” Abraham added.
With that mission now accomplished, has she decided to give up music?
“No – but I’m definitely going to take a break.”
Early mornings
The 1,000-day feat wasn’t easy. For almost the first year, Abraham would sleep by 8pm so she could rise by 3.30am to record her songs between 4am and 6am at a venue before heading to work. Later on, she started finishing her songs at home after returning from work.
Running late, getting stuck
She once recorded her song outside an airport manager’s office while running late for a flight. On another occasion, she started working on her song while stuck in a lift. “That song wasn’t about getting stuck in a lift,” Abraham joked.
All her songs are original, meaning she had to create 1,000 themes or stories (more counting the additional songs) and the endless lyrics.
No demeaning songs
“When I would drive home from work, I would think what to write about. Most of my songs are about life, relationships, values and the state of the world. They are affirming songs that speak to people. My music has to have a message. I don’t do demeaning songs or use derogatory language. And I don’t sing songs just for songs.”
Over the 1,000-day spell, both her son and daughter completed college. He daughter got married and Abraham became a grandmother to a boy and a girl.
Abrupt change
After singing daily for so long, Abraham said “part of my system hasn’t come to terms” with the abrupt silence of melody. Looking back, she is “quite happy by how it all turned out.”
Star singer
At the concluding ceremony of her successful attempt, held at the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, followers from US, Australia and India joined to hear her last live song. One fan even registered her name as a star – a celestial star. “One person from the US did an online registry for a star under my name and gave me a certificate with the coordinates for the star. It was all so overwhelming.”
Uploads of her songs can be seen on www.1000songsin1000days.com/tour
