Surrey Ground Zero for `the Punjabi wave'
Top-selling artist Dosanjh sells out B.C. Place
Diljit Dosanjh launches the Canadian leg of the Dil-Luminati tour at B.C. Place Saturday. The cross-country arena jaunt by the Indian music and film star marks the first time a Punjabi musician has headlined the largest venues in the country.
This news comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed the chart-topping career of the 40-yearold artist who became the first Indian artist to headline a stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2023. Billboard reports that the B.C. Place show is set to become the largest-ever Punjabi music concert outside of India, with a sellout capacity crowd of 54,000.
There is a direct B.C. connection to the massive success of this global pop star.
Like so many major names in Indian pop, Dosanjh has hired Canadians to produce his hits. Surrey-based Aneil Singh Kainth, who records under the name Intense, provided the music for hits such as Lover from Dosanjh's smash album MoonChild Era.
“People in the West used to equate Indian music with Bollywood, but the influx of students coming, bringing their culture and assimilating here meant Punjabi music took off,” said Intense. “Growing up, I was listening to AC/DC and Def Leppard as well as music from India. I thought it would be dope to combine and fuse genres. Now, we are toe-to-toe with Western music in terms of global streaming numbers.”
Intense notes that a career path for someone in his position typically took the artist out of Canada and over to India or the U.K.
Not anymore.
What has been described as “the Punjabi wave,” has direct Canadian connections with Surrey, as a kind of Ground Zero for the new hybridized sound championed by Intense, Juno award-winning Surrey singer Karan Aujla and others. Intense credits 2016's Suit, a track he released with hitmaker Guru Randhawa, as a game-changer.
“At first, everyone in India was confused by what I was doing, and people over here weren't totally sure either,” he said. “Then I hit upon the secret sauce of what works over there and what works over here and we've been rolling out the hits ever since, right up to Diljit playing Coachella. I'm not going to lie, having him give me a shoutout from the stage there was amazing.”
Intense has started Double Up Entertainment as a vehicle for both his musical careers as well as HRJXT, Harpreet Sran and others. Twenty years on in the industry, Intense has seen the Punjabi music scene go from its early centre in Toronto, to today's hub of Surrey. This trajectory corresponds to the two-decadeslong journey of the Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration (VIBC), which started in 2004 as a showcase for traditional Punjabi dance.
Today, VIBC is behind 5X Fest. The seventh annual celebration of South Asian youth culture takes place June 13-16 and includes the Blockparty where many rising stars of the Punjabi wave perform. 5Xfest.com is also where the 5xpress is published.
This unique site is a definite go-to for keeping on top of the burgeoning Indo-Canadian cultural scene.
Harpo Mander is VIBC's executive director and one of the youngest artistic directors of a major music event in Canada. She sees the global impact of Punjabi music being the result of expressing itself in ways that can't be ignored. Today's sounds are blasting out all over because they are so in tune with youth culture, including elements of traditional folk, hiphop, EDM and more.
“There are tangible things we can see about this global explosion, from billions of streams on Spotify and arena sellouts by artists like Diljit, to Karan recently winning a Juno,” said Mander.
“Many of the roots of this music are coming from Canada because that is where the artists are. Pop culture is one of the easiest ways to get involved in what's happening in a new host country and I think artists coming here have done their research and are making music that is more reflective of our totality; the music is cool and in the mother tongue.”
Another big name in the scene is Ikwinder Singh. The 23-year-old from Toronto produced the recent Juno-winning record from B.C.'s Aujla and has released his own electronic-dance-oriented EP Ikky's House before heading out on the multi-date Man Like Ikky tour in the U.S. He isn't surprised to see artists like Dosanjhand Aujla playing arena dates.
“First of all, we (people from India) have a massive population in this country and that community is pushing the music in new directions, making bigger and bigger strides,” said Ikky. “Those of us who can speak both Punjabi and English had to lobby hard to bring this to the attention of the labels, the streaming services, Live Nations and whatnot, and present it like they had a choice to be on-board or miss out. Opportunities like Diljit being at B.C. Place are moments in time to build this music globally.”
Warner Music Canada and Warner Music India established the new 91 North Records imprint under Ikky's oversight to release Aujla's Juno-winning Making Memories. The debut hit No. 5 in the Billboard Canadian Albums chart, which Ikky said proves there is clear crossover for this music outside of just Punjabi-speaking listeners.
“It's very important for me and all of the other collaborators to keep making music that defies being described as South Asian or Punjabi music, because it's just music,” he said.
“Our ecosystem is unique, because a true hit is judged by whether it is being played at weddings or not. But that is now expanding into streaming and global pop for everybody.”
Concerts like Dosanjh's B.C. Place event are hitting the right notes.