The end of the decade is a day away, and we decided it would be quite helpful for Tamil cinema nerds if we put out a database about the big performing Tamil songs on YouTube. And also infer from that some lip-smacking facts that you can flaunt in conversations or… arguments, in any New Year parties you may attend.
The list is of the top 10 videos on YouTube, ranked on the basis of number of views. In cases where the same song has multiple versions, we have picked the version with more hits, to give space to other songs.
Note: The data is obviously subject to change from the time that we recorded it. So, if things change in favour of or against your stars/singers/composers… Happy New Year.
1. 1,040,451,776 is the total number of views garnered by Poetu Dhanush's three songs in the top 25 list. Out of this, 942,793,248 is from just the top two videos – 'Rowdy Baby' from Maari 2 and 'Why This Kolaveri Di' from 3.
2. Songs from director Balaji Mohan's films have 832,434,968 hits from two films – Maari and Maari 2. This makes Maari the franchise with the most hits on YouTube for its video songs.
3. Director Atlee has 262,292,049 hits and director Siva has 240,854,963 hits, from three videos each – making them the directors to feature the highest number of times in this list.
4. Aaradhana Sivakarthikeyan is youngest singer in the list; her video garnered 146,919,933 hits, to take third place.
5. If you didn't know Poetu Dhanush is… Dhanush, which makes him a star-singer-lyricist in the list with the highest hits on YouTube; occupying the top two places. As a star alone, he has a total of 1,131,523,440 hits from four videos, putting him at the top among stars.
6. Prabhu Deva, as an actor, features twice in the top five. And, in the Top 25 list, he has 337,875,406 hits, which is more than three times that of Rajnikanth's total 112,208,596 hits, through the single 'Marana Mass' video at the sixth place.
7. Hiphop Tamizha is the only person with Composer-Lyricist-Singer-Star-Director credit in the list for his 'Vaadi Pulla Vaadi' video from Meesaya Murukku, which features in the 16th place, with 81,566,096 views. As a composer, he has to his credit 167,219,190 hits.
8. Anirudh, as a composer alone, has 571,181,137 hits from five videos in this list, the highest appearance for anyone. Yet the cumulative number is less than Yuvan Shankar Raja's single appearance via the 'Rowdy Baby' video at the top with 734,776,435 views.
9. 'Chennai Gana Sudhagar Mahima' is the YouTube title of an independent gaana song sung by Gana Sudhagar with lyrics by Anagai Sudhakar. It has 73,439,491 hits, and finds a spot in the 20th place.
10. At the 19th spot is another independent song composed and sung by duo Vivek-Mervin, and written by Ku. Karthik. With 76,002,199 hits, this is an independent Tamil song with the highest hits on YouTube.
11. Sivakarthikeyan the actor finds a spot in the 21st place with 'Un Mele Oru Kannu'. However, as a singer, he features in the third place with 'Vaayadi Petha Pulla', from Aishwarya Rajesh-starrer Kanaa.
12. Two songs from Kanaa and one each from Imaikaa Nodigal and Lakshmi feature in this list. The similarity? All these films revolve around the female lead.
13. Both Vijay and Ajith feature thrice in the Top 25 list, and have a total of 262,292,049 and 240,854,963 hits, respectively.
14. Harris Jayaraj is one of the major Tamil cinema composers absent in this top 25 list, which is based on YouTube views.