Diljit Dosanjh: From Coachella to Fallon – his fame decoded

The answer to this question depends on who you ask.

For the uninitiated, Dosanjh is an incredibly popular Punjabi singer who made his debut on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show last week. The 40-year-old sits proudly at the forefront of what is being called the “Punjabi wave,” a new generation of artists who are blending native Punjabi music with rap and hip-hop.

Introduced by Fallon as “the greatest Punjabi artist in the world,” Dosanjh – dressed in traditional attire – performed his hits “Born to Shine” and “GOAT” in front of a packed crowd.

“After a few seconds, everyone was dancing,” says Sucharita Tyagi, a film critic who attended the show. “You should have seen the faces of the house band – they were speechless.”

In India, Dosanjh is also known as a versatile actor who sings in all his films, and also as an accomplished producer. And for others who may have never seen his films or followed his music, he is a social media star who regularly makes waves with funny videos on Instagram – one video of him having a hilariously frustrating conversation in Punjabi with voice assistant Alexa is a particular favorite among many.

Dosanjh is particularly interesting because his image is the exact opposite of the Punjabi hip-hop stereotype: a musician who eschews the music’s raw sound and vocabulary in favor of something more organic and traditional.

He’s a soulful singer whose rich baritone rings and shakes with emotion in all the right places. At shows, he brings the house down with his energy (and makes Ed Sheeran sing in Punjabi), and his on-screen performances can move people to tears or laughter.

For his fans, he is first and foremost a “Beeba Munda,” or “good boy,” whose spontaneity, natural charm and approachable personality make him one of the most lovable stars of his time.

“If you ask three people in a room why they like the guy, they will give different reasons: his acting, his singing or just his Instagram content,” says Tyagi. “But they will all have one thing in common: their love for the person he is.”

Dosanjh was born Diljit Singh in the village of Dosanjh Kalan in Punjab and began his career singing religious songs in a local Gurdwara. Those who knew him then say he was a “shy boy” who “barely had a beard, but had the rhythm, did Bhangra well and tied a very good turban”.

“He was a very God-fearing, studious boy,” Rajinder Singh, a song producer who gave Dosanjh his first chance, once told the Indian Express.

At the age of 16, he released his first album. The songs were less of a sensation in nightclubs than at wedding receptions, where he became instantly popular with his great innocence and soulful voice. Soon he was performing almost every day.

A few years later, his parents sent him to the city of Ludhiana to live and train with his uncle, a local musician. It was a fertile time for pop music, with regional artists like Daler Mehndi and Panjabi MC of “Mundian to bach ke” taking Punjabi sounds to the world. In 2006, Dosanjh did his first international tour in Canada and a year later he released his second album, this time under his new name: Diljit Dosanjh.

One thing led to another and by 2010, Dosanjh had established himself as a popular actor in Punjab’s thriving film industry. Six years later, he made his Bollywood debut. Today, he is a global star.

Last year, he made history by becoming the first Punjabi singer to perform at Coachella. He has also collaborated with pop singer Sia and accompanied Sheeran during his tour of India.

In his interviews, Dosanjh has repeatedly said that his success was no accident. He worked day and night for it and diligently practiced singing even when he did not get the opportunity.

But his humble demeanor makes him seem like an innocent bystander on his path to fame.

“When a star reaches a certain stature, he usually wants to reinvent himself. But Dosanjh does not indulge in personal excesses, even as his popularity continues to rise,” says communications consultant Dilip Cherian.

“By remaining this humble, good boy, he pushes a lot of the right buttons with the audience,” he adds.

But Cherian believes there is more to it than meets the eye – and that part of Dosanjh’s authentic personality may be purely superficial.

In fact, Dosanjh himself has said that, contrary to his image as a “pure soul” who doesn’t care about the hustle and bustle, he is constantly trying to outdo the competition: “That’s my job and I make no secret of it.”

Dosanjh has consciously avoided falling into the trap of the “edgy bad boy” — the conventional path followed by most of his peers, Cherian says.

Apart from an early phase in his career when his songs were about guns and male pride, Dosanjh has largely avoided controversial subjects. He has abandoned the usual Punjabi pop cliches of revenge and violence in favour of themes of faith, love and tradition. Some of his most popular songs, such as GOAT and Born to Shine, are about how he is not here for the money, but to make a name for himself and his village.

He begins every concert by announcing “Panjabi aagaye hai (Punjab has arrived),” sings only in his mother tongue and claims that he doesn’t care whether he speaks English well. “When you come from a small place like mine, you want the whole world to know about it,” he once said in an interview.

Although Dosanjh is conscious of his roots – each song tries to portray an aspect of his Punjabi identity – he doesn’t let them limit him. He draws heavily on tradition but also experiments with it, mixing pop with loud bhangra beats to create songs that make tired old cliches sound fresh and relevant.

As an actor, he moves between comedic and serious roles and makes films about uprisings and the drug problem in the Punjab province such as “Udta Punjab”, but also light-hearted satires and love stories such as “Jatt & Juliet”.

Those who have met him, like Tyagi, describe him as a “shy and quiet but extremely attentive man.” However, that doesn’t stop him from engaging in stunts and cracking jokes on social media, many of them at his own expense.

“After years in the industry, Dosanjh has people by his side who help him maintain this image. On the one hand, it’s about staying authentic, but on the other hand, carefully balancing his decisions between national and international audiences,” says Cherian.

Whatever one judges his authenticity, there is no denying that Dosanjh is a man of extraordinary talents.

Even Dosanjh’s self-deprecating humor sometimes seems deliberate. He tries to make jokes about himself – including his lack of fluency in English – before anyone else does. But behind the lightness lies a serious artist, constantly thinking about his place in the world and how he, a young village boy from Punjab, can challenge it with his art.

His music may be the foundation of his career, but Dosanjh offers much more: he is a complete package, a mixture of old and new, simple and stylish, which makes him an absolutely likeable artist.

“And even if some of the authenticity is artificial, who is it hurting? He doesn’t lie about his achievements or talents,” says Tyagi.

“There are still more boundaries to overcome – and Dosanjh just wants to do everything.”