Athabtoohum… That’s the Omani take on Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yanki’s Despacito. With the song earning the global distinction of being the most streamed song ever and with singers from all walks of life creating their versions of the song, the spunky Omani cover with lyrics that depict dowry as a modern-day torture, has found immediate popularity with over 2.5 billion views in less than a week.

The Omani cover of Despacito, conceptualised by Muhannad Al Udwani and Faham al Mawali, has gone viral since it was uploaded on July 25, earning media coverage in and around the region, even on BBC Trending. While the video is miles away from the seductive sequence in the original number, its underscore on the high costs of dowries, with humorous lyrics and visual plays, has touched the right chord with young Omanis suffering dowry woes. Most young men are required to save up a minimum of RO9000 as dowry, making marriage a very costly affair.

The singers stress on the need to go back to simple ways of marriage, with the chorus stating, rather candidly, that ‘you are tormenting them’ – ‘you’ referring to the elders who have forgotten their ways of simple marriages and have made it a business of dowry.

“Despacito” (“Slowly”) is a song by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi featuring Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee from Fonsi’s 2019 studio album Vida. Released on January 12, 2017, the song was written by Fonsi, Erika Ender and Daddy Yankee, and produced by Mauricio Rengifo and Andrés Torres. A remix version featuring Canadian singer Justin Bieber was released on April 17, 2017, which helped to improve the song’s chart performance in numerous countries, including various number-one positions. “Despacito” has been widely credited by music journalists as being instrumental in popularizing Spanish-language pop music in the mainstream market again.