I would totally prefer streaming a song dropped on an artist’s own YouTube channel than the one released in any popular channels like Music Nepal, Highlights Nepal, Songs Nepal with millions of subscribers. I don’t know if that makes sense and why does it even matter, but that’s how I mostly stream music.

I could understand if an up and coming artist hesitates to release a song from their new channel that hardly has any subscribers, I mean, you’ve spent weeks (even months) creating this thing and it deserves to land on more people’s playlists; but that doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t work if you put it out from your not so popular channel. You doubt? Well, I’ve got proof.

These are some of the 2020 songs that were released from YouTube channels that didn’t really have many subscribers but still (almost) instantly became popular, with most of them hitting one million in no time.

Let’s see what we’ve got.

Jhari by Yabesh Thapa

The year started on a good note for Yabesh Thapa who released his single ‘Lakhau Hajarau’ on the first of January. He didn’t release it from his channel though, but ClassX Presentation. It’s his biggest hit so far, but his next hit ‘Jhari’ was released from his own channel that didn’t really have a lot of following. Released at the end of March, the song has almost a million hits.

The song’s written, composed and sung by Yabesh while Storenutter arranged, mixed and mastered it.

Maicha by Emerge

Dude, this was quite a surprise. A Nepal bhasha song that instantly became everyone’s favorite and it didn’t matter if they had no idea what the lyrics said. Emerge band released ‘Maicha’ in June and it already has almost 2.5 million views in less than three months.

Ujan Shakya has written, composed and sung the song and even composed the music himself.

Sano by Apurva Tamang

Until April this year, Apurva Tamang had mostly been doing covers but on 23rd of that month, he released an original single titled ‘Sano’ and I am pretty sure it kinda changed his life. I know, I know, that sounds exaggerated but it is for sure, it changed the way he does music as he hasn’t done another cover since then and already has released another two new originals. That’ impressive, like really.

The song is written, composed and sung by Apurva himself.

Aparichit Bhaawanaa by Oasis Thapa

Oasis Thapa’s first hit didn’t really come out this year but in August last year as he made his debut with ‘Juni Vari Lai’ but he still didn’t really have the number of subscribers that he always deserved. ‘Aparichit Bhaawanaa’ came out on the last day of January this year and it’s his most popular work so far with 2.4 million streams.

Yaadharu by Ankit Shrestha

Ankit Shrestha has been around for quite some years now and he is hella talented. I wonder why he is not as popular as Sajjan Raj Vaidya and Bikki Gurung already. Anyway, it’s okay, his awesome music can remain our little secret and also, I am sure he will be big if he keeps doing music.

It’s been seven years since he released ‘The Underwater Song’ but his major hit came out recently only. ‘Yaadharu’, released in April this year, became his first song to hit half a million views.

Written, composed, produced and sung by Ankit himself; the track is mixed and mastered by the OG, Diwas Gurung and comes with an animated video by Shahanshil Dangol.

Stunnin’ by Curtis Waters

Ayyy! It’s always so good to see Nepali talents shine internationally. Based in North Carolina; Abhi Bastakoti, better know by his stage name Curtis Waters, blew up with his track Stunnin this year. The track that found popularity on Tik Tok first became a major hit on Spotify and YouTube as well.

Released in May on YouTube, the song has garnered almost 16 million views already.

Maaya by Varsha Thapa

Damn, who knew? Like seriously, who could have guessed this supermodel is a beautiful singer-songwriter as well. Varsha Thapa gave everyone a pleasant surprise when she dropped her single ‘Maaya’ in April this year. The song has over 2.6 million views on the video-sharing platform.

The song is written, composed and sung by Varsha.

Timi Muskurayeko by Sainesh

Dude, where had you been hiding all these years? Such a good talent this guy Sainesh is, who dropped ‘Timi Muskurayeko’ in January this year. It has a whopping 3.2 million streams on YouTube.

Ma Sanga Hidideu by Kelsang Shrestha

This guy was 16 when he dropped his first single. Yeah, just sixteen. Damn. Now 18, he released his third original single ‘Ma Sanga Hidideu’ in March this year and it has been streamed almost a million times already.

Shardool Shrestha has produced music for the song written, composed and sung by Kelsang.

Dhaka Dhoti by VYOMA and D1

‘Absolute Banger’, that’s what I called it when it came out. It’s still tough for a rap song to be recognized if it doesn’t come from one of the very few “popular” rappers but you gotta do what you gotta do ‘cos that’s how you succeed and that’s what VYOMA and D1 did as they put out this one hell of a rap song that’s in Awadhi language. The music video released in July this year has been viewed over 1.3 million times.

Batash by Shaswot Khadka

This song is amaaaazing and everyone is loving it!! ‘Batash’ by Shashwot Khadka is another song that first became popular on Tik Tok and then people started searching for it everywhere else as well. Released in the end of July, this one has over two million hits.

I am sure I have left out a number of other beautiful songs that should have made the list, just remind me which ones in the comment section below.

So anyway, my point here is, if you have worked on something that you are proud of, just put it out there and let it shine. You know what I mean, right?

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