Singers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

The singer who made bhangra-pop the sound of 1990s India, with 'Bolo Ta Ra Ra' and 'Tunak Tunak Tun'.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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