Celebrated Bollywood and Assamese singer Zubeen Garg died in a freak accident in Singapore on Friday. The 52-year-old artiste was in the island nation for the North East India Festival, where he was scheduled to perform on September 20 and 21.
The organisers of the North East India Festival issued a statement confirming the news of his death and underlined that they were unaware of the yacht visit before the tragic accident, adding that the festival stands cancelled in light of the singer's death.
The statement read, "With profound grief, we share the heartbreaking news that our beloved icon, Zubeen Garg, passed away today at Singapore General Hospital around 2:30 PM. Zubeen had arrived in Singapore just the day before yesterday. He was scheduled to be with us at the festival tomorrow, meeting and interacting with people."
"Earlier today, our entire team was engaged in a business meeting with senior Singaporean industrialists and policymakers at the Shangri-La Hotel to facilitate investments in Northeast India. During the meeting, we received a call from Zubeen's manager informing us that he had met with an accident and had been rushed to Singapore General Hospital. We later learned that a few members of the local Assamese community had taken him on a yacht visit, of which we had no prior knowledge," the statement further read.
The organisers concluded, "On receiving the news, our team rushed immediately to the hospital and has since been working closely with the High Commission to complete the necessary procedures. This is a monumental loss, and words cannot express the depth of our grief. In light of this tragedy, we are cancelling the event. We are devastated and pray for the departed soul of Zubeen Garg. Om Shanti. Shaymkanu Mahanta & Team."
Who Was Zubeen Garg?
Zubeen Garg was one of Assam's most popular cultural icons, known for his songs in Assamese, Bengali and Hindi. He rose to nationwide fame with the hit track Ya Ali from the film Gangster and went on to deliver several other popular numbers, including Dil Tu Hi Bataa from Krrish 3.
Garg had also worked extensively in Assamese films as a singer, actor and director. Some of his hits included Kanchanjunga, Mission China, Dinabandhu and Mon Jai.
In 2022, he sustained a minor head injury after falling unconscious at a resort in Dibrugarh. He was later flown to Guwahati in an air ambulance and treated at a private super-speciality hospital.
