Shaan remembers late friend Zubeen Garg with new song on first death anniversary

Singer Shaan paid tribute to his late friend and Assamese music icon Zubeen Garg on his first death anniversary with a new song featuring Mahalaxmi Iyer. Shaan shared a video remembering Garg and wrote, “Long Live #Zubeen” on social media.

Mumbai: Stalwart singer Shaan has paid a musical tribute to his late friend and Assamese music icon Zubeen Garg, dedicating a new song to him on the first anniversary of his death.

Taking to his social media account, Shaan shared a video featuring visuals of Zubeen and captioned it: “Long Live #Zubeen Woh Jo sabka apna hai .. Hamesha rahega .. Banke Apna !!” The song features Shaan, with Mahalaxmi Iyer lending the female vocals.

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The tribute comes exactly a year after Zubeen Garg died in Singapore on September 19, 2025, aged 52. For the uninitiated, Zubeen Garg had travelled to Singapore in connection with the North East India Festival and was scheduled to perform there on September 20. He died after becoming unresponsive during a swimming outing from a yacht in waters off Lazarus Island.

While initial reports described the incident as a scuba-diving accident, the subsequent Singapore investigation established that Garg had been swimming from a yacht, had removed his life jacket and later entered the water again without one.

He became unresponsive while swimming back towards the yacht and was rescued and taken to Singapore General Hospital, where he passed away.

Shaan and Zubeen, apart from being great friends, had also collaborated musically, including on the Assamese song “Mon Ghanot”, along with other singers.

Zubeen Garg, born on November 18, 1972, in Tura, Meghalaya, began his professional music career with his Assamese album Anamika in 1992.

Over a career spanning more than three decades, he had worked as a singer, composer, songwriter, music director, actor and filmmaker, recording in numerous Indian languages.

Although he was already a major name in Assam and the Northeast, the singer became widely recognised across India with “Ya Ali” from the 2006 Hindi film Gangster: A Love Story. The song became one of his most recognisable Hindi film recordings.

He also lent his voice to songs including “Dilruba” from Namastey London and “Jag Lal Lal Lal” from Big Brother.