An image showing a large crowd on an airport premise is viral on social media with a claim that over 4 lakh people had gathered at Delhi airport to welcome Sri Lankan singer Yohani Diloka de Silva, popularly known as Yohani.
BOOM found this claim to be false; the image is from 2019, and was taken at Japan's Narita airport after over 13,000 passengers were stranded there due to Typhoon Faxai.
Yohani De Silva rose to prominence in 2020 with the song Manike Mage Hithe, which became viral on YouTube especially in South Asia, crossing over 130 million views. According to reports, she recently came to India on a concert tour to perform in Gurgaon and Hyderabad. Read here.
Also Read: Kerala's Handsome Hustler: How Monson Mavunkal Bragged His Way To Fame
Photo Viral With False Caption
The image shows a crowded airport next to an image of De Silva with the following text on top -
"Indian News More than 450,000 people throng Delhi airport to welcome Yohani yesterday ..29th..On arrival she received cash gifts amounting upto USD 500,000 even before she hit the stage today . She was welcomed by India's billionaire film stars and business tycoons . Already the song is topping charts in Europe and has just entered USA . In India this week it was the number one song..Her maiden live performance is tonight at New Delhi."
<You can view the Facebook post here. We also found other posts on Facebook with the same image (post 1, post 2).
Also Read: Photo Of Arvind Kejriwal Overshadowing Mahatma Gandhi In Ad Is Fake
Fact Check
BOOM cropped out the image of the crowded airport from the photo and did a reverse image search. Google suggested the keywords "typhoon faxai narita airport" along with the search results.
We also found articles about Typhoon Faxai which struck Japan in September 2019. One of them was by Japanese news publication Nikkei Asia which carried the viral image.
The article, published on September 9, 2019, reported about over 13,000 passengers being stranded at the Narita airport due to the typhoon.
"Over 13,000 people spent the night at Narita International Airport waiting for more train and bus services to be restored after one of the strongest typhoons in recent years to batter Japan's capital region," it read.