Composer Laura Hawley was asked months ago to provide a song celebrating Muslim culture for an annual Ottawa school Christmas concert.

She took the ancient Islamic song “Tala al-Badru ’Alayna” — said to have been sung to the prophet Muhammed — wrote some new music and a new arrangement for instruments such as piano, and added some French lyrics for the Dec. 3 concert at École secondaire publique De La Salle.

Since then the tune has taken on a life of its own. A video of the performance with the title “Welcome to Canada Syrian Refugees” has been viewed more than a million times on YouTube. And Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tweeted about the song.

News of the song has spread around the world with the CBC and Al Jazeera mentioning it and many Internet references, says choirmaster Robert Filion.

He and Hawley have received a certificate of appreciation from the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

Since he commissioned the song so long ago, Filion says there was nothing political in his choice of the music, but he calls the response “proof that the music we did is something people wanted to hear.”

She noted that numerous audience members were moved by the song. “One lady was super happy, she was crying. They were happy tears.”

Although it wasn’t planned that way, she’s glad people are seeing it “as a welcome to the country.”

Sharlene Clarke, 17, points out that the choir has learned to sing in German, Latin, French, Slovakian and a host of other languages so they didn’t falter when tasked with studying an Arabic song.

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