Associated Press
[Source: AP]
Arooj Aftab became the first Pakistani Grammy winner when she took home the global music performance award for her song “Mohabbat” in 2022.
A year later, actor and singer Diljit Dosanjh stepped onto the smoke-filled stage of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Southern California, becoming the festival’s first artist from the Indian state of Punjab near the border with Pakistan, a region known for its vibrant musical culture.
In August, the first-generation Indian American artist Avara sat in a bed of rose petals at a concert hall in Brooklyn for the opening performance of her first tour. Fans crowded around the stage for a glimpse of the artist, who has gained over 250,000 new monthly Spotify listeners since November 2024 — a more than 250% increase.
“I started getting a bunch of her TikToks,” said audience member Alex Kim, a 22-year-old music assistant. “Everyone has a short attention span these days, but I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I actually really like this.’”
Following Afrobeat, K-pop and Latin music, songs with South Asian influences are the latest global trend to build audiences around the world. In April, Warner Music Group launched 5 Junction Records, a label dedicated to selling South Asian-influenced artists to North American listeners.
“It’s something that’s been forming slowly,” Billboard CEO Mike Van said about the overseas surge of South Asian-influenced artists. “We started to see these growth spurts over the last couple of years because of all the technology, evolving tastes and activation of these diaspora audiences.”
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