Media outlets including The Indian Express, The Times of India and The Economic Times misreported that singer Sonu Nigam spoke up against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Tejasvi Surya amid the ongoing language row in Karnataka.
The reports claimed that in an X post the singer called out Tejasvi Surya and his remarks on using Kannada in public sector banks by objecting to the nationwide releases of Kannada films and dubbing them in Hindi.
BOOM found that the post attributed to singer Sonu Nigam was from an account belonging to his namesake. The singer had earlier clarified in 2017 that he is not on X (formerly Twitter).
BOOM had also fact checked multiple media outlets earlier when they had misidentified the same namesake X account as the singer Sonu Nigam. Read the fact checks here and here.
Tejasvi Surya had recently shared a video on X where an employee of a public sector bank was seen arguing with a local customer over speaking in Kannada. Surya, in the X post, said that the employee's behaviour was 'not acceptable' and demanded that they know the local language to 'deal with local customers.'
The Indian Express reported that the singer sarcastically took a jibe at Surya for the above X post.
Click here for an archive of the post.
The same was also reported by The Times of India. The Economic Times further claimed that Sonu Nigam urged US clients of Bengaluru software companies to speak in Kannada based on the X posts by his namesake. The news articles have since been deleted.
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Fact Check
BOOM found that the X posts were from the X account '@SonuNigamSingh'. Click here and here for archives. The verified X account belongs to Sonu Nigam Singh, a lawyer based in Bihar.
A Google keyword search led to several news reports from 2017 about singer Sonu Nigam quitting the social media platform X erstwhile Twitter. In 2017, Nigam cited 'concerns over the lack of respect for freedom of speech' and quit the platform.
Both the lawyer and the singer have recently wrote about media outlets for erroneously carrying the former's X posts as made by the latter.
Singer Sonu Nigam used screenshots of the X posts and wrote about the Times of India on Instagram on May 22, 2025, for basing their news article on his namesake account. He wrote, "Times of India, are you Out of your mind? How many times have I declared I am not on Twitter? Spreading misinformation on my name is only going to poison the minds of people who have loved me so much all these year".
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Sonu Nigam's Pahalgam Remark
An FIR was filed against singer Sonu Nigam for allegedly hurting sentiments during a concert in Bengaluru after the Pahalgam terror attack in April 22. During the event, Nigam said that a student in the audience had 'rudely' threatened him to sing Kannada songs. A video surfaced where he can be heard saying, "...didn't like it when the boy there, who is not even as old as my career, rudely threatened me to sing in Kannada...It is because of such behaviour that incidents like the Pahalgam attack happen." The remarks sparked a massive row, with the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce announcing a 'non-cooperation' campaign against the artist. Nigam later issued an apology. The matter also reached the Karnataka High Court, where Nigam received some relief after the state government assured the court that no coercive action would be taken against the singer, provided he cooperates with the investigation.
