Belting Out Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’ Brings Fame to Pakistani Teens
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iStock/Thinkstock(LAHORE, Pakistan) — After listening to Justin Bieber’s hit song “Baby” 70 times, Pakistani sisters Saania, 15, and Muqqadas Tabaydar, 13, nailed the heartthrob’s song.
“When I heard the song I forgot to eat or drink. I was just listening. I kept practicing and practicing until I learned it by heart,” Muqqadas told BBC News.
From a poor family near Lahore, Pakistan, neither sister speaks English so they meticulously sounded out the words and transliterated the lyrics into Urdu.
A video of the girls performing the song was posted to Facebook on February 17, and has since racked up 1,965,033 views. Soon after, local TV channels came knocking and the sisters were invited to perform live.
“We had our hair and makeup done. We’d never been to a beauty parlor before. All of it was like magic so who knows what will happen next,” Saania told BBC News. “We really didn’t expect all of this to happen to us, to be famous like this. Because of this video we got on a plane for the first time and we’ve been on TV. That’s always been our dream.”
But the real dream?
“Our biggest wish, though, is to meet Justin Bieber and to sing with him.”
Their mother Shahnaz Tabaydar, who can be seen tapping a pot in the original Facebook video, admitted to BBC News she shared her daughters’ Bieber Fever.
“I still can’t believe all of this happened to my daughters, all thanks to Justin Bieber. I like him a lot. I feel he’s like my son,” Shahnaz Tabaydar said.
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