Ed Sheeran's duet with Punjabi star Diljit Dosanjh delights Mumbai and lights up Indian social media

CNN
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British singer Ed Sheeran wowed the stage in Mumbai with Diljit Dosanjh over the weekend as the duo sang a rendition of the Indian artist's hit single Lover in Punjabi, a duet that quickly lit up Indian social media.

Both artists posted videos of their performances on Instagram, to cheers from the crowd as Sheeran invited his singing partner on stage.

Got to go out @diljitdosanjh tonight in Mumbai and sing in Punjabi for the first time. I had such an amazing time in India, more to come! Sheeran wrote in a job.

Singer and actor Dosanjh, 40, is one of the biggest South Asian artists in the world and has played a major role in taking Punjabi music to the international stage. He made history in 2023 as the first Punjabi artist to perform at Coachella.

Over the past 15 years, Sheeran has gone from self-releasing his EPs and performing in small bars in London to becoming one of the best-selling modern pop songwriters. He is in the middle of his gigantic world mathematics tour which will last two and a half years.

More than 50,000 spectators gathered at Mahalaxmi Racecourse to witness Dosanjh's surprise appearance, as the Indian star thrilled the audience and Sheeran swayed on an acoustic guitar, singing parts of the chorus.

“We didn't know Diljit would be there, it was like the moon had come down,” a fan said in a post. video recap posted by the Indian star.

I'm still processing what just happened here, I'll never forget this night, said another spectator.

Spotify India commented on a video posted by Sheeran saying that we see fire on this stage, in reference to one of the British stars' hits.

Indian fans and celebrities on social media praised Dosanjh for making Sheeran sing in an Indian language.

Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan called it world domination, in a comment on Dosanjh's Instagram video.

I was standing in the audience, screaming like a fan girl. It was the multiverse event that no one expected, commented comedian Sahil Bulla.

Hats off to Diljit, another user wrote. This man literally blew up the Punjabi music scene by creating other artists [sing] in Punjabi while awaiting their collaboration.

Dosanjh has collaborated with other English-speaking singers and last year released the bilingual track Hass Hass with Sia, the Australian-born artist behind Chandelier and Elastic Heart.

And fans are hoping for more international crossovers with the Indian artist, with one person commenting first Sia, now Ed, Diljit is going to make everyone sing in Punjabi.

Indian has 23 official languages ​​and is home to hundreds of other native languages.

Punjabi is native to the Punjab region of India, as well as neighboring Pakistan. Worldwide, there are more than 100 million Punjabi speakers in the South Asian subcontinent and diaspora communities.

During the concert, Sheeran also thanked fans for braving hours of traffic to get to the event.

Roads leading to the sprawling 225-acre site, the equivalent of about 170 American football fields, were clogged with cars about five hours before the concert began at 7:15 p.m. Saturday, according to CNN staff in attendance.

Traffic was so heavy that some fans abandoned their cars and walked the last two miles to the entrances.

I know India is a big country, but not everyone here at the concert is necessarily from Mumbai. People have come a long way to be here today. People were getting on trains, planes, driving, and having kids. I know you spend a lot of time spending your Saturday night with me, Sheeran said.

This is only the beginning, he added, and he promised to return to India.