How South Asian music is gaining fans globally, from Spotify to Coachella and the Grammys
Artists playing South Asian music are gaining popularity worldwide, and Gen Z and Gen Alpha fans are leading the charge
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.
In August, the first-generation Indian-American artist Avara sat in a bed of rose petals at a concert hall in Brooklyn, New York, 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 per cent 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 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.”