Composer-singer Jasleen Royal has reached a milestone few independent artists anywhere have touched: her self-financed released single ‘Heeriye’ has crossed 500 million views on YouTube. The achievement makes ‘Heeriye’ only the second completely independent, artist-funded release in history after AP Dhillon, Gurinder Gill and Shinda Kahlon’s ‘Brown Munde’ to reach this scale of viewership.
‘Heeriye,’ composed and sung by Royal featuring vocals from Arijit Singh, lyrics by Aditya Sharma and starring actor Dulquer Salmaan in its music video directed by Taani Tanvir was launched as an artist-owned release. It reached No. 1 on YouTube’s Global Trending Music Videos chart upon debut, outperforming commercial releases from major global pop acts. The track has also crossed 512 million streams on Spotify.
Jasleen Royal states, “Heeriye was a risk, an emotional investment and a statement that independent music can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the biggest commercial releases. To see it break boundaries proves that listeners care about the relatability and authenticity of the song.”
Music composition, production and master financing have long been male-dominated fields, with female artists rarely given full creative and financial control over large-scale releases. By owning her masters and self-financing her global marketing, Royal has broken through that barrier proving independent, artist-driven titles can match or outperform major commercial releases.
Royal’s independent run is backed by a rare catalog footprint: she’s the only female singer-composer with multiple entries on the region’s All-Time Top 15 Most-Streamed Songs list. Her cinematic breakout ‘Ranjha’ from the film Shershaah commands over 602 million streams, while her independent single ‘Sahiba’ has crossed 280 million streams, holding at No. 9 on the platform’s most-streamed songs list overall last year. Combined, ‘Ranjha,’ ‘Heeriye’ and ‘Sahiba’ account for more than 1.3 billion streams, pushing Royal’s total Spotify catalog spanning both Bollywood soundtrack work and independent releases past 2.16 billion cumulative streams.