Ye Hai Mumbai - Apartment by Bappi Lahiri, Sonu Nigam

Ye Hai Mumbai - Apartment arrived from the Apartment album and quickly became one of the most replayed tracks of 2010. Bappi Lahiri has a history of strong work, and the music on Ye Hai Mumbai - Apartment is among the most memorable of it.

Bappi Lahiri, Sonu Nigam delivers the lyrics with a nuance that turns an already strong song into something genuinely moving. Rohit Roy, Anupam Kher, Tanushree Dutta, Neetu Chandra gave the film its soul, and Ye Hai Mumbai - Apartment is the song that most directly channels that feeling into music.

By the end of 2010, Ye Hai Mumbai - Apartment had moved well beyond its original audience and into everyday playlists. Some music is background. Ye Hai Mumbai - Apartment demands attention — not aggressively, but in the way a good conversation does.

Running to 3:22, the song is exactly as long as it needs to be, which is the hardest length for a songwriter to find. Ye Hai Mumbai - Apartment endures because it was built on feeling rather than formula — and that is the one thing streaming numbers cannot manufacture.