Diplo shares his love for Punjabi music at Coachella 2023

A milestone breakthrough for South Asian artists took place at Coachella Valley Music & Art Festival this year.

Pakistani singer Ali Sethi made his debut at the Palm Springs festival while Diljit Dosanjh became the second Punjabi singer to perform on one of the world's most glorified festival stages, after American-Punjabi r'n'b singer Raveena Aurora's performance last year.

Sethi and Dosanjh are both monumental artists to the South Asian diaspora. Sethi’s 'Pasoori' is the most searched song on Google in 2022, and Dosanjh is ultimately the most popular Punjabi musician of today.

‘Pasoori’ which loosely translates to “difficult mess” stemmed from when Sethi was asked to pen a song for popular television series Coke Studios; an Indian broadcaster pulled out from the creative partnership with Sethi because of his Pakistani origins. With over half a billion views on YouTube, the song is a musical metaphor for the tension between India and Pakistan.

"You're a Pakistani, and India and Pakistan are at war, and now we can't really put up a billboard saying we're working with you because extremists will set fire to our building," the singer recalls being told.

After this past weekend, a Pakistani and Indian performer have now jointly raised the bar for all South Asian musicians.

To add to the mix of celebration, and never one to be shy from public display, American artist Diplo thoroughly enjoyed the diverse mix of flavours at this year’s California festival — he was seen grooving to Diljit Dosanjh's 'Patiala Peg'.

The rumour mill's already banking on Dip-inder's debut bhangra release.