A Guide to Punjabi Music

Whether they’re taking on Coachella, collaborating with Burna Boy and Stormzy, or soothing the soul with their genre-blending sounds, Punjabi superstars like AP Dhillon, Diljit Dosanjh, and Karan Aujla are in the global ascendancy.

As the warm electronic strains of AP Dhillon’s “Toxic” drifted over the 125,000-person Coachella crowd in 2024, did those hearing it realize that the song’s antiheroine was drawn from Mirza Sahiban, a Punjabi tragic romance from the 17th century? And as Jasleen Royal rode high with her 2023 smash hit “Heeriye,” listeners got to know the well-worn tale of forbidden love, Heer Ranjha, a folk tale that also inspired South London singer Raf-Saperra on his 2025 G-funk-infused R&B track “Heer.” With Punjabi music stars signing to major international labels, topping Bollywood charts, and playing some of the world’s biggest festivals, it’s indisputable that the genre has bloomed well beyond being a regional powerhouse to become a globally loved phenomenon. As Dosanjh put it during his 2023 Coachella show: “Punjabi aa gaye, oye!” (“Punjabis have arrived!”) If you’re seeking the origins of the Punjabi sound in 2025, look no further than a wedding celebration. Among the love and beauty, ancient folk songs such as “Jugni” and “Madhaniya” still ring out. Tappa, a lilting strain sung originally by nomadic camel riders in Punjab continues to wash over the wedding ballads, with the immensely popular “Chitta Kukkad” inspiring a plethora of interpretations, including 2018 pop smash “Lamberghini” by The Doorbeen, and “Saari Duniya Jalaa Denge” from the Hindi film Animal (2023). Emotional connection is the key to Punjabi music’s ongoing conversation with its heritage. About the enduring appeal of “Madhaniya,” Sukhmani Malik of folktronica duo Hari & Sukhmani told Apple Music in 2025, “[This] is a quintessential bridal song, reminiscent of childhood memories. It tells the story of a girl getting married and leaving her parental home for good. Whenever we perform it, we see a certain look on grandparents’ faces and a few tears coming down from the bride’s parents’ eyes.” As with most folk repertoires, Punjabi music’s hallmarks have been passed down generations through an oral tradition. Its earliest documentation was as hymns, or shabads from religious texts such as the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of Sikhism. Meanwhile, the works of Sufi philosopher/poets such as Bulleh Shah and Shah Hussain have been rendered by rock stars and pop artists such as Harshdeep Kaur and Satinder Sartaaj throughout the years. “I’ve been a massive fan of Sufi music and qawwalis for my whole life,” Raf-Saperra told Apple Music in 2025. “It’s a classic South Asian sound with the harmonium, vocals, and a chorus of men belting it out in a high octave.”

In 1947, the partition of British India into the newly independent countries of India and Pakistan resulted in the displacement of millions of people on both sides of the border and the largest mass migration in history. The province of Punjab, like that of Bengal, was split across religious lines, with the Muslim-majority West Punjab becoming part of Pakistan and the Hindu- and Sikh-majority East Punjab part of India. Post-partition, among those who relocated from Pakistan to India was the hugely influential singer Lal Chand Yamla Jatt, who became known as “ustad” or “maestro,” for popularizing the single-stringed tumbi, the distinctive sound which later went global with just six sampled plucks on Missy Elliott’s rap classic “Get Ur Freak On,” prompting a wave of bhangra-infused US hip-hop in the early 2000s. The most celebrated female artist of the era was Surinder Kaur, aka “the Nightingale of Punjab,” who revived folk compositions such as “Bajre Da Sitta” and “Lathe Di Chadar.” Her legacy lives on through pop singers like Rashmeet Kaur, whose takes on those tunes infuse them with electronic music and hip-hop. Amar Singh Chamkila enjoyed huge success as “the Elvis of Punjab” owing to his flamboyance and risqué lyrics, before he was fatally shot in 1988, aged just 27, during a time of political insurgency in the region. So dramatic was his story, that Diljit Dosanjh took the lead in his 2024 Bollywood biopic, bringing that unique sound to Gen-Z. “The magic of Chamkila is that he literally can make you dance with just one instrument, the tumbi, and his voice,” rapper and singer Jassa Dhillon told Apple Music in 2025. Singer-songwriter and actor Gurdas Maan, who is still performing more than 40 years after releasing his first album, is a living legend. Across a prolific career, he has mastered traditional and popular forms of music, claiming legions of fans around the globe with a winning mix of soulfulness and charm, and a discography of over 30 albums (and counting).

Most Hindi pop stars had a deluge of offers to sing playback—providing vocals for songs that are lip-synced by actors on screen—for Bollywood films, leading to a decline of Indi-pop into the mid-2000s. This was happening just as Punjab’s music industry emerged as India’s most prolific source of music outside of movies. The state is said to house hundreds of labels, each releasing tracks by talents with a hybrid sound that meshes indigenous folk with pop, R&B, and hip-hop. And, while the Punjabi scene has always thrived beyond the bounds of its film industry, there’s a constant crossover between the two—many singers, including Diljit Dosanjh, Gippy Grewal, and Nimrat Khaira, have enjoyed parallel careers as actors contributing to film soundtracks. The Hindi film business, notably, has had a strong Punjabi connection since its inception, but it wasn’t until the 2000s that the acceptance of Punjabi-language music by non-speakers became so widespread that Bollywood producers and directors, such as Karan Johar, regularly began using Punjabi-language singers and songs for their movies. By either syncing or recreating Punjabi pop hits in their soundtracks, and enlisting performers such as Badshah, B. Praak, Guru Randhawa, Harrdy Sandhu, and Neha Kakkar, they increase the chances of landing a hit. Think of Hindi film favorites like the dance-floor-fillers “London Thumakda” from Queen (2014), “Kala Chashma” from Baar Baar Dekho (2016), and “Tauba Tauba” from Bad Newz (2024), or even the melancholic ballad “Ranjha” from Shershaah (2021), and you get the picture.

The evolution of bhangra from a folk dance into a byword for popular Punjabi music was kickstarted in the UK during the 1960s, after Sikh immigrants fused the rhythms of the dhol with Western instruments like the synthesizer. Over the ensuing decades, the early exponents of the genre known as bhangra pop, such as the Birmingham-based singer Malkit Singh (“Gur Naal Ishq Mitha,” “Tutak Tutak Tutiya”), became household names across the global Punjabi community, leading the way for future stars such as Canada’s Jazzy B (“Dil Lutiya”), the “Crown Prince of Bhangra.” But the wider world became aware of bhangra’s irresistible beats after the success of the 2003 remix of British Indian DJ/producer Panjabi MC’s 1998 album track “Mundian To Bach Ke (Beware of the Boys).” Featuring a guest spot by Jay-Z, it was a hit across Europe and reached the top 40 in the US. By the 1990s, the UK had become the hotbed of exciting Punjabi sounds in a golden age of British Asian music. Producer Bally Sagoo and singer-songwriter Apache Indian, aka Steven Kapur, pioneered fusions of bhangra, electronic music, and reggae that achieved chart success at home and in India, where hits like “Boom Shack-A-Lak” burst on to music television, helping to birth the Indi-pop scene. While Kapur wrote primarily in English and Jamaican patois, the arrival of MTV in India paved the way for the first national Punjabi-language pop star, Daler Mehndi, whose hook-filled tunes and simple choruses (“Bolo Ta Ra Ra,” “Tunak Tunak Tun”) appealed to those who didn’t even understand the language. Their sheer danceability was a pull—a feature that would also turn Sukhbir (“Oh Ho Ho Ho”) and Jasbir Jassi (“Dil Le Gayee”) into Indi-pop stars with ’90s hits that are still floor-fillers. More cross-cultural exchanges continued over the next decade, with British Indian composers such as Dr Zeus (“Kangna”) and Rishi Rich (“Dance with You”) scoring some of Punjabi pop’s enduring smashes. There was even a Punjabi offshoot of UK garage, which, while a little more underground, still won big followings for acts like trio RDB and their track “Aja Mahi.” The advent of the 2000s also saw the release of what’s widely regarded as the first Punjabi hip-hop album: Vich Pardesan De (In the Foreign Land), by Pakistani American rapper Bohemia. In India, meanwhile, the arrival of rapper/producer Yo Yo Honey Singh heralded a different kind of desi hip-hop, which set the stage for other Punjabi rappers to rhyme about their aspirations and truths, with the subject matter cutting a wide swathe from commentary about social injustice and the immigrant experience to party-ready bars about chasing a luxury-filled life.

If the UK was a hub of Punjabi music in the 1990s, Canada superseded it in the 2020s. The superstar Diljit Dosanjh and the late, great Sidhu Moose Wala had bases in North America, along with the third-culture mavericks who were either born or immigrated there, such as the singer/rappers Karan Aujla, AP Dhillon, and Shubh and the producers Ikky and Intense. The rising prominence of the Great White North as a source of—and one of the largest markets for—Punjabi music shows how the genre has evolved. An ability to effortlessly blend rustic melodies with Western beats has also helped Indian artists such as Arjan Dhillon, Jordan Sandhu, Navaan Sandhu, and Prem Dhillon regularly chart high, not just domestically but also in territories such as Australia, Canada, and Aotearoa New Zealand. Conversely, artists such as AP Dhillon, and Aujla have staged sold-out tours back in India. When AP, Aujla, or Dosanjh perform, the atmosphere is so electric that, though understanding the lyrics enriches the experience, it’s not essential to appreciate the showmanship on display. As Aujla told Apple Music in 2024, “I’m just happy with Punjabi, we’re doing these experiments and taking it to another level. So anybody that loves music could just enjoy it. They don’t have to worry about, ‘Oh, is this a Punjabi song?’” The onstage energy spreads as thousands dance and sing, showing that Punjabi language can be a conduit for a worldwide celebration of deeply felt emotions. Bridging cultures is second nature to these artists who regularly collaborate with Western counterparts. Dosanjh has duetted with Sia, Saweetie, and NLE Choppa; AP Dhillon with Ayra Starr, Gunna, and Stormzy; and Aujla with OneRepublic and YG; Sidhu Moose Wala’s records have featured Burna Boy and Stefflon Don. That sense of identity and heritage is something so special, says Aujla. “My parents have given me this beautiful language [and] now I could rhyme with and make a business out of it. What’s more special?” he told Apple Music. “I love my culture, I love everything about being a Punjabi.”