ONTARIO – A Thunder Bay, Ontario, Muslim student has been a hit on YouTube after his faith-based songs were streamed more than a million times on the video-sharing website, offering youth an alternative to usual rock themes.
“It’s just that some of the mainstream music … it’s very vulgar,” Muslim singer-songwriter Usama Syed told CBC on Tuesday, March 28.
“Some of the themes of the music – it’s just like sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. It’s kind of part of the culture in a sense. … and there’s some people who want other than that.”
Performing under the moniker Siedd, the Lakehead University mechanical engineering student posted the first of his five faith-based music videos in July of 2016.
“It’s You” has now been viewed more than 80,000 times — but that’s nothing compared to his reworkings of Shawn Mendes’ “Mercy,” which clocks in at more than 225,000 views, and of Gnash’s “I Hate U, I Love U,” which is approaching 450,000.
His version of Gnash’s “I Hate U, I Love U,” for example, is retitled “I Need You,” and the relationship-themed lyrics are replaced with words about turning to god for help with family struggles.
He believes people are responding to the North American influences in his music, which set him apart from the majority of Muslim artists, who are based overseas and whose music is inspired by trends in their homelands.
Siedd’s popularity has taken the humble, enthusiastic artist by surprise.
“I wasn’t able to find music that I’d be able to fully connect with, in a sense that it’s also reflective of my faith as well, being a Muslim, so I decided that, maybe if I can’t find anything, maybe I should start creating it,” he said.
Spending his childhood in Mississauga, he moved to Thunder Bay with his family at 14.
“Sometimes you need that isolation to grow and to learn about your own self,” he said of leaving Mississauga’s large South Asian community for the not-so-diverse environs of Thunder Bay.
“It let me focus on myself.”
He also credit’s Thunder Bay’s “friendly people” with encouraging him to pursue his passion.
“I was a very shy kid so I would not sing in front of the class, but then those teachers kind of pushed me,” he said.
“I think definitely if I hadn’t moved to Thunder Bay I wouldn’t have been able to do this.”