Dressed in Ottoman-era attire complete with a surgical mask, Sufi singer Eren Cosan wakes people up with his drum in the early hours for "sahur" — the last meal before a day of fasting that begins before sunrise. But unlike most Ramadan drummers who simply pound on the drum, Cosan sings traditional Sufi songs whose lyrics are very much in tune with the woes of a Ramadan amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

A short clip that showed Cosan singing “Give me a remedy, my sultan” went viral May 10, reaching nearly a million viewers through Twitter and news sites. Cosan, a self-taught singer, and another musician, Umit Turker, were filmed from a balcony on a street in Mamak, an Ankara neighborhood that has been a traditional stronghold of the ruling Justice and Development Party.

His newfound fame caught Cosan by surprise. “I was not even aware that we were filmed, let alone that the clip became viral, until the next day,” he told Al-Monitor. He took the job of Ramadan drummer because he needed money. “Normally, our Sufi band does very well this time of the year because we perform at wedding ceremonies and Ramadan concerts. But all collective activities shivered down due to the coronavirus,” he said, adding that the municipality paid drummers 100 Turkish liras ($14) a day.

The Ramadan drummers are normally paid in tips from the locals. But the Interior Ministry banned them from going door-to-door to collect tips as part of measures against the pandemic, which has caused nearly 4,000 deaths in Turkey. Therefore, local authorities decided to pay Ramadan drummers a daily fee, particularly after some of them said they would go on strike if they were not allowed to collect tips.