Daler Mehndi

The Nightingale of Punjab, who carried the folk songs of the women's courtyard onto the radio.

The singer with the tumbi and the turban whose 'Satguru Nanak' song every Punjabi knows.

The king of the kali, the high-voiced singer of Heer, Mirza and the old ballads.

The great folk singer of West Punjab, who made Jugni and the chimta famous.

Malika-e-Tarannum, the Queen of Melody from Kasur, voice of Punjabi and Urdu film for half a century.

The Banjara singer from the desert, discovered at a shrine, whose 'Lambi Judaai' crossed every border.

The qawwal from Faisalabad who carried the Punjabi Sufi song to the whole world.

Singer, songwriter and actor from Giddarbaha, the most loved Punjabi entertainer of his generation.

The most popular live performer in Punjab in the 1980s, shot dead with his wife Amarjot at 27.

The rapper from a Mansa village who made Punjabi music global, shot dead at 28.

The ghazal singer from near Sialkot whose 'Chupke Chupke Raat Din' is sung in both Punjabs.

The singer from Isa Khel in Mianwali whose sad Saraiki and Punjabi songs filled the buses and trucks of Pakistan.

Singer and actor from Dosanjh Kalan who took Punjabi music to Coachella and the world's biggest stadiums.

Canadian-Punjabi singer from Gurdaspur whose 'Brown Munde' made a new, moody Punjabi pop for a global diaspora.

Pakistan's king of bhangra-pop, whose 'Billo De Ghar' (1995) played at every wedding in the 1990s.

Surinder Kaur's elder sister, one of the first women to record Punjabi folk songs, on Lahore radio before Partition.

Folk singer of Pakistani Punjab, famous for his high, ringing voice, his Heer and 'Kadi te hass bol ve'.

Folk and Sufi singer from near Jalandhar who carried the kafis of Bulleh Shah and the old ballads into the Punjabi music of the 1990s.

Singer, songwriter and actor from Fatehgarh Sahib district who writes his own songs about village life, love and Punjab's politics.

Songwriter from Ludhiana district, orphaned young, whose hits made him one of the biggest Punjabi stars in the world in the 2020s.

Rapper born in Pakistan and raised in California, the pioneer of Punjabi rap.

Singer and actor from Gujrat, one of the great voices of Pakistani Punjabi film and folk song.

Qawwal from Faisalabad, nephew and pupil of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and one of the best-loved voices of Hindi film.

The gentle voice of the first Punjabi records after Partition, famous for 'Balle ni Punjab diye' and his duets with Surinder Kaur.

Folk singer of the Malwa whose comic duets with her husband K. Deep, as Mai Mohno and Posti, made all Punjab laugh.

Folk singer of the Malwa whose duets with Ranjit Kaur filled the akharas of the 1970s, and who later sat in Parliament.

Folk singer famous for the 'hek', the long-held opening note she could sustain for about 45 seconds.

Singer from a Muslim family of musicians in Fatehgarh Sahib district, whose 1980 hit 'Roadways di laari' began a long career.

Singer with the longest hek of his generation, whose 'Dupatta tera satrang da' was a hit across Punjab in the 1990s.

Singer from Jalandhar district whose 'Tootak tootak tootiyan' became one of the first worldwide bhangra hits.

Poet-singer from Hoshiarpur district who brought Sufi poetry back into Punjabi music, and played Duleep Singh on screen.

Hazoori ragi of the Harmandir Sahib, master of kirtan in all the 31 ragas of the Guru Granth Sahib.

Folk singer born near Jalandhar who became the voice of Punjabi folk on Pakistan's radio and television.

The great singer of Khwaja Ghulam Farid's kafis, from Kot Addu in the Seraiki south.

Film star of 1950s Lahore who became the voice of Punjabi wedding songs with 'Mera laung gawacha'.

Wandering Sufi singer from Okara with a tumbi on his shoulder, who sang at shrines for decades before the world heard him.

Son of Alam Lohar who carried his father's chimta and jugni to the world, above all in Coke Studio's 'Alif Allah'.

Singer of Punjabi film songs from a poor family of musicians, whose 'Tu Jhoom' with Abida Parveen reached the world in 2022.

Pop singer from Rawalpindi whose 'Boohey barian' brought a Punjabi folk song into 1990s pop.

Lahore singer and writer whose 'Pasoori', in Punjabi, became the most-heard Pakistani song in the world in 2022.

Two brothers from a village near Amritsar who sang Sufi kafis and Gurbani in the old style, Puranchand and Pyarelal Wadali.

Two sisters from Jalandhar whose fierce Sufi singing went from village melas to Bollywood.

Singer from Amritsar whose voice is behind 'Chaiyya Chaiyya' and the Oscar-winning 'Jai Ho'.

Singer from Bathinda district whose film Jee Aayan Nu (2002) helped start the revival of Punjabi cinema.

Singer whose 'Dil le gayi kudi Gujarat di' (1998) was one of the great bhangra-pop hits of the 1990s.

Bhangra singer born in Doaba and raised in Canada, one of the first stars of the diaspora's own Punjabi music.