Rahman launches his 1st English song

Mumbai: Universal Music along with Maestro A R Rahman launched Pray For Me Brother which is the first ever English rendition of the top notch music director.

It has been composed and sung by the prolific musical genius Rahman himself.

He is a passionate supporter of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's), which is a set of eight and promises to end poverty around the globe, hunger and disease by 2015.

The MDG's were derived from the Millennium Declaration that Prime Ministers, Presidents, and other leaders from 189 countries signed in the year 2000 at the historic UN Millennium Summit held at New York.

''UN Millennium will post Pray For Me Brother on its website www.millenniumcampaign.org for free download and will widely use the song in its global campaign including in Europe and the US,” director, Millennium Campaign from New York, Salil Shetty said on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion Rahman said ''One thing is common about hunger-everybody feels it. This song is a statement from India to the world. Otherwise we listen and the world talks. I have seen beggars everywhere. This song is not a remedy but an inspiration to do something.''

''Mr Sathya (Ex- WHO) suggested I should come up with a song for the tuberculosis cause for which UN had appointed me as their Brand Ambassador. As I was doing this, I noticed the poverty around that we seem to have become immune to. I called my friend Blaaze and asked if we could do something, hence the song was born,'' he added.

“The aim is to bridge the gap between India and Bharat. We have good GDP growth, but a certain percent of our population has no access to basic sanitary services. Something has to be done today or it will be too late,” said Rajat Kakar MD, Universal Music.

The MDG's range from eradication of extreme poverty and hunger to drastic reduction in infant mortality rates or the number of children dying before turning five and in HIV/AIDS, malaria and other dreaded diseases.

In October, the Millennium Campaign and its Civil Society partners held the 'Stand Up' event creating a global record of 23 million people standing up against poverty and for the MDG's. As many as 18 million joined in Asia alone with 9.7 million in India.