Ali Sethi Returns With Two New Singles

On the heels of his global smash hit “Pasoori” and his critically lauded collaboration Intiha with Nicolás Jaar, Pakistani-American pop star Ali Sethi drops his latest single, “Lovely Bukhaar.” Paired with b-side “Dil (Awakening),” this smoky, sultry, and deliciously unclassifiable track blurs the lines between hip hop, Bollywood, flamenco, and punk rock. It also marks Sethi’s first release since his label, Zubberdust Media, inked a deal with The Orchard.

Drawing on the trope of a lovestruck maiden, Sethi sings of his feverish infatuation with an unnamed paramour, his ululations enacting the fires in his soul. Ria Modak’s exquisite guitar holds a mirror to his virtuosic vocals, while producer Abdullah Siddiqui builds a chamber of haunted sounds, from police sirens to femme-fatale fingersnaps, that conjure up a high-stakes tryst in a cursed town. The overall effect is like a fever (the “bukhaar” in the title) rising and abating, and a soul being purified by passion. 

The b-side “Dil (Awakening)” reinterprets a traditional ghazal with muted, glitchy textures that evoke the breezes and crooning mendicants of Sethi’s native Punjab.

Ali says, “This is me submitting to the crucible of cultures that is our world today, taking on its fires, welding its anguish with my own. I refuse the narrow trappings of genre, and of the accompanying tags of ‘identity’ that are bandied about when diasporic musicians go to work. I want you to feel many things when you hear this music, to see all the lands in which I have lived, and to hear my disparate influences as valid and whole.”

On November 22 Seth and Nicolás Jaar will perform together at Vancouver, BC’s Chan Centre. Tickets are available here.

Ali Sethi’s music is a rich fusion of traditional qawwali, ghazals, and modern influences. After rising to prominence with the release of his debut novel The Wishmaker in 2009, he made a major mark in the music world with his groundbreaking hit single “Pasoori,” which was Google’s #1 Most ‘Hum to Search’ Song in the world in 2022.  It has been streamed over 1B times and is the most successful Coke Studio song ever. That same year he was included in TIME Magazine’s “2022 TIME100 Next list.” In 2023 Sethi released Intiha, an album-length collaboration with Nicolás Jaar, which garnered worldwide attention from the likes of NPR, Pitchfork, and Stereogum among others. 

With the promise of a full-album in 2025, today’s single is a feast for the senses and a beguiling first glimpse into what promises to be a major musical milestone, both for Sethi and the cosmopolitan, literary-minded communities he courts.  

About Ali Sethi

Named to TIME Magazine’s “2022 TIME100 Next list,” the New York City-based Ali Sethi spent his childhood in Lahore, Pakistan and is now a U.S. citizen. He infuses his music with the same multitudinous space that Sethi occupies - Punjabi folk mixed with contemporary beats and camp performance. Sethi rose to prominence with the publishing of his debut novel in 2009, The Wishmaker. Since then, he has been involved in numerous musical, film, and literary projects all inspired by his unique identity, a diasporic voice fusing ancient artistic inspiration with a thoroughly modern and urgent outlook.

“A love song that sounds like a threat,” is how The New Yorker describes “Pasoori,” Ali Sethi's 'earwormy' single that topped Spotify’s viral chart and put South Asia on the music map of 2022. An ingenious blend of Punjabi folk tunes and zany beats, the 'global phenomenon' "Pasoori" (The Guardian) has garnered over 790 million views on YouTube and 300 million streams on Spotify since it was released in February 2022; now, the song plays nonstop in South Asian clubs, restaurants and wedding halls and was also featured on an episode of Disney+’s Ms. Marvel. Sethi was then featured in Pitchfork and Intiha, his collaboration with Nicolás Jaar, drew accolades from around the world.

Photo Credit: Fujio Emura, Courtesy of Zubberdust Media LLC

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