BEFORE THE START...

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On 28th March, 2016, I was overwhelmed by a sudden sense of wanting to give up and retire from music having been at it for 24 years. I had performed the globe over, published 21 albums, impressed upon thousands of people with the ‘gift’ of music; but at that point felt that it was all futile having left me unfulfilled.  In that state, I did the strangest of things - wrote another song “Be Strong”. The following day, I woke up with the idea of writing 1000 songs in 1000 days, in real terms, a song a day. I later remembered the story of Scheherazade, the lady who changed the heart of the angry King with her tales over a 1001 Arabian Nights. That evening, after I got home from work, I sat again and wrote “Crossing Over”; the following day in similar fashion I wrote “Blest & Broken”, and by then I was convinced that I could do this for 1000 days, and resolved to do it. In any case, I have written songs in quick succession for several of my albums. I thought this over many times, and the more I dwelt on it the more I was sure of two things– that this was no small challenge, but that I should be able to do it. Incidentally, from July 2012, for about two years, I wrote a reflection everyday; no matter what happened, a reflection would go up on a website every day, and in retrospect I see that that was cultivating in me the discipline required for the challenge on hand, creativity steered by discipline otherwise unimaginable I would think for an artiste! What you see below is the song - composed, produced and published afresh each day, also with dated videos (serving only as conclusive evidence) after the making of each song 'live'. I would like for just about anyone to come up with (all kinds of) ideas/ short storyboards for the songs - you can write to me on this amongst other things on the Guestbook on this site.

(Disclaimer: Do send your song idea suggestions only starting 8th April, 2017, any song idea sent before this date will not be considered, to maintain the integrity of the challenge. I myself have hundreds of ideas I will not be dwelling on until I start working on this, no more than one a day. No songs are being worked on ahead of time, this in principle is not in line with the spirit of the challenge. More clarifications on the sub-page FAQ.)

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I call this (challenge) the phoenix move, the culmination of all that I have been and done as a singer-songwriter before I fade into the eons of time.

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I am a resident expat living in Dubai, am as old as the UAE, and consider this as one home with my parents having been here from as early as 1968. We owe so much of what we are to this glorious land, it is my honour to do this challenge in Dubai timing it to culminate with the launch of the year of EXPO2020.

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Although I can do this going solo, I would like for this initiative to serve a greater cause and therefore hope to partner with EXPO2020, with a charity that caters to reducing poverty, educating children and rehabilitating refugees; with several corporate organizations and individuals, with sound engineers, musicians and singers that don't get many opportunities, with media and with a world records organization. The financial support extended to this initiative on this page was envisioned after costs to go entirely to the aforementioned charity (Read point 3. on the sub-page Challenge In A Challenge. This aspiration is therefore not yet in effect). I reiterate that if none of these partners get on board, I WILL STILL PROCEED WITH THE CHALLENGE. For my fulfillment in work, first and foremost, is in the work itself.

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After three days of test, God willing, this challenge will commence on 8th April, 2017 and conclude on 2nd January, 2020. Do pray for me please.

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Note: Two days before I embarked on the challenge, owing to a special reason, I decided to step up the bar doing two songs a day instead of one, the second being "A Children's Song A Day". You will find a dedicated page on this website, just like this one, listing the videos of those songs.

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Yours sincerely,

Swapna Abraham

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IN CONCLUSION...

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The challenge turned out to be so much more. Infact 2321 Songs In 1000 Days.

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The following record attempts have been certified as successful by the Golden Book of World Records that clearly understood the output and methodology associated with this challenge and were able to establish a standard for what is called a song, and song production.

  •Longest quotidian feat of composing, producing and publishing song incessantly (April 08, 2017 - January 02, 2020) 

  •Quotidian feat of composing, producing and publishing multiple songs incessantly for 100 days (March 08, 2019 - June 15, 2019)   

  •Most songs composed, produced and published by an individual in one day (January 01, 2020)

  •Longest quotidian feat of composing, producing and publishing children's song incessantly [they do not consider the children's song as a regular song, but certainly call it children's song] (April 08, 2017 - January 02, 2020)

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