Aima Baig covers Kaifi Khalil’s song

Singer Kaifi Khalil shot to national stardom after his debut performance on this year’s Coke Studio, with his track Kana Yaari raking in millions of views and rave reviews. Khalil has since developed a devoted fan following, with his off-beat eccentric style making him stand out from his contemporaries in the music arena. Now it looks like one of his biggest admirers is Aima Baig. Spellbound by Khalil’s hit track Pyar Hua Tha, Baig has done a cover of the song which was originally composed and performed by Khalil. Referring to the song as a “beautiful melody,” Baig took to Instagram to announce to her millions of followers that the song and Khalil’s “beautiful voice” had gotten stuck in her head. As a result, she felt compelled to put her own spin on the tune. Baig said, “Thank you to the amazing artiste Kaifi Khalil for letting me sing his composition. There’s no ambiguity that nobody can do justice to his melody especially the way he presented it.” Baig’s cover of Pyar Hua Tha has a video directed by Adnan Qazi and is defined by Baig’s effortless ability to transition from soulful renditions to more pop elements of songs. Baig also believes that by appreciating each other’s music, artistes should try to support and uplift their contemporaries.

Kashmir working on their second album

After winning Pepsi Battle of the Bands, Kashmir established themselves as one of the most innovative bands currently operating in Pakistan’s music landscape. While most musicians and artistes are drifting towards churning out pop songs defined by a catchy beat, Kashmir’s style is very different. Their music hearkens back to the music of the early 2000s and bands like Fawad Khan’s Entity Paradigm (EP). Hence, fans of slightly more rock and grunge music have been eagerly waiting for Kashmir to put out some new music which showcases their signature style. After the success of their album Khwab in 2020, lead singer Bilal Ali has announced that the band’s second album ZIndagi is in the works and will be coming soon. The band has already released individual songs and music videos since their debut album Khwab, and the band is now hard at work to compile their new music in one album. Band members Bilal Ali, Vais Khan, Usman Siddiqui, Shane J. Anthony, Zair Zaki, and Ali Raza revealed that the release of this album was pushed back due to the pandemic. The Coronavirus and heavy rains and flooding across the country also impacted Kashmir’s concert schedule, which meant they couldn’t perform as often as they would have liked. However, with life returning to normal now, Kashmir are not only eager to perform more but also want to make sure that they put out their second album Zindagi sooner rather than later.

Spotify unveils list of most popular Pakistani musicians

Spotify is undeniably the biggest music streaming platform in the world, and the popularity of Pakistani artistes on Spotify speaks volumes about the global reach of Pakistan’s music. While this has been a good year for Pakistani music in general, it has been a particularly good year for those singers who are now affiliated with Spotify. The displaying of the pictures of Hasan Raheem and Natasha Noorani on a Spotify billboard in Times Square in New York demonstrated that Pakistani musicians are gaining rapid success on the music streaming platform. Spotify Wrapped, the yearly look-back at the best performing and most listened to musicians of the year, revealed that Atif Aslam was the most-streamed Pakistani artiste of 2022. However, the most streamed musicians in Pakistan are actually Indian artistes. Singer AP Dhillon, Arijit Singh, Pritam, Gurinder Gill and Sidhu Moose Wala continue to be the top listened to musical artistes in Pakistan. Unsurprisingly, the Ali Sethi-Shae Gill song Pasoori was the most streamed Pakistani song of 2022 after it became a breakout sensation when it was released on the latest season of Coke Studio. Alongside these names, other Pakistani artistes who were among the most listened to in the country include Talha Yunus, Kaifi Khalil, Young Stunners, Asim Azhar, Abdul Hannan, Justin Bibis and Hasan Raheem.