''Sayonee'' ( ur, ) is a song by the Pakistani

sufi rock Sufi rock or Sufi folk rock is a subgenre of rock music that combines rock with classical Islamic Sufi music traditions. It emerged in the early 1990s and became widely popular in the late 1990s in Pakistan and Turkey. The term "Sufi rock" was co ...

band Junoon, released in April, 1997. It is the first track from the band's fourth album, '' Azadi'' (1997), released on

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...

. Written by lead guitarist and founder of the band

Salman Ahmad Salman Ahmad ( ur, , born 12 December 1963) is a Pakistani born-American musician, rock guitarist, physician, activist, occasional actor and professor at the City University of New York. He earned nationwide popularity in 1998 for his uni ...

and writer Sabir Zafar, it is the lead

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

on the album, the song uses blends of rock guitars and bluesy vocals with traditional musical elements like the

tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల� ...

percussion drums, Hindustani

raga A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradit ...

-inspired melodies styled and blended into

Pakistani folk music Pakistani folk music refers to the local genre of folk music that originates from Pakistan. Major folk singers *Malika Pukhraj (1912 - 2004) (sang in Kashmiri Dogari Pahari language) * Tufail Niazi (1916 - 1990) (sang in Punjabi language) *Alam Lo ...

. The unexpected success of "Sayonee" in 1997 propelled ''Azadi'' at the local and international music charts, within three months of the release of ''Azadi'', the album had sold over half a million copies and hit platinum sales status in a record of four weeks. The music video of the single, "Sayonee", was shot by Asim Reza which became an instant hit in

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

, shooting to the top of all the Asian charts, and staying at #1 on both

Channel V Channel '' ("V" standing for the letter, not the Roman numeral "5") is a Chinese and former Asian pay television musical network originally launched by Star TV Hong Kong (now Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific). It was part of the unit of Disney ...

and

MTV Asia MTV was a pan-Asian music pay-television channel which launched on 3 May 1995 as a standalone pay television channel. It was owned by Paramount Networks EMEAA. History MTV Asia was officially launched on 3 May 1995 as a 24-hour English-languag ...

for over two months. The single was a hit in

, topping all music charts in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. The success of the single led the album being the band's highest selling album in South Asia and Junoon received a platinum certification for hitting platinum sales for their album. Also, the single was nominated for the 'Best International Song' at the Channel V Music Awards in 1998. Junoon won the 'Best International Group' title at the Channel V Music Awards, where they performed along with world-wide icons

Sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-eart ...

The Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...

and

Def Leppard Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1976 in Sheffield. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drums, backing vocals), Phil Collen (guitar, backing vocals), a ...

. ''Azadi'' was nominated for 'Best International Album', having achieved the prestigious honour of being the highest selling album in

and

that year. To this day, it is considered one of the best sufi rock songs ever recorded, and is often performed at concerts by Junoon. The song is one of the most well known and popular track by Junoon, also listeners and critics have continued to praise "Sayonee" as one of the greatest rock songs of all time in

Pakistani music industry The Music of Pakistan ( ur, , lit=pákistáni mosíqi) includes diverse elements ranging from music from various parts of South Asia as well as Central Asian, Middle Eastern, and modern-day Western popular music influences. With these multiple ...

. Also, "Sayonee" was named at #1 in a list of Junoon's top 10 songs published by

Gibson Guitar Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation) is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and professional audio equipment from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company was former ...

on their website. In addition, the live version performed at

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, in 1998 of the song featured in the live album '' Daur-e-Junoon'', released in 2002.Daur-e-Junoon review
May 6, 2011. The song has also featured in several other albums by the band like '' Junoon for Peace'' (2001) and '' Dewaar: The Best of Junoon'' (2004). A 2021 recreation of the song, featured in a film of the same name starring debutantes Tanmay Ssingh and Muskaan Sethi, featured vocals by

Arijit Singh Arijit Singh (born 25 April 1987) is an Indian singer and music composer. He sings predominantly in Bengali and Hindi, but has also performed in various other Indian languages. He is the recipient of a National Award and six Filmfare Awards ...

and

Jyoti Nooran The Nooran Sisters are Sultana Nooran (born 14 June 1992) and Jyoti Nooran (born 24 February 1994) who are a devotional Sufi singing duo from Hoshiarpur, Punjab, India. Born to a family of Sufi musicians, they perform Sham Chaurasia gharana c ...

and was composed by Joy-Anjan, with additional lyrics by Alaukik Rahi.

Music video

The music video of "Sayonee", literal English meaning "Soulmate", was directed by Asim Reza, and was shot entirely in the Pakistani city of Multan. The plot of the music video rotates around a boy who struggles to find his soul mate and goes through many troubles in life. Furthermore, as the music video proceeds the boy is shown all grown up but still struggling to find his soulmate and thus, is shown running in order to try to save himself from the troubles he has been into. The music video also showed the band performing the song wearing traditional sufi clothing and in between the music video short clips of traditional sufi dancers were seen performing sufi dance.

Track listing

Sayonee

Personnel

;Junoon *

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

Ali Azmat Ali Azmat Butt (born 20 April 1970) is a Pakistani singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He is best known as the lead singer for the influential Sufi Rock band Junoon and for his subsequent solo career. In 2001, he became part of the first ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

* Brian O'Connell -

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

;Additional musicians *Ustad Aashiq Ali - Tambourin, Tabla

References

{{Junoon 1997 singles Junoon (band) songs Songs written by Salman Ahmad 1997 songs EMI Records singles Pakistani rock songs