Describing actor-singer Diljit Dosanjh as a trailblazer is no act of hyperbole: after 13 studio albums and more than 40 singles, very few south Asian artists have crossed over into the global mainstream like he has. In 2023 he became the first Punjabi artist to perform at Coachella, and earlier this year the first date in his Dil-Luminati tour, in Vancouver, was the largest-ever Punjabi music concert outside of India.
In Glasgow, he makes a suitably over-the-top entrance. A film with colourful clips of Dosanjh in various terrains play under his meditative voiceover in Punjabi. Words flash across the screen as an AI-sounding voice takes over, asking us to ready ourselves, before another introduces the man in question: “He is born to shine, a rockstar, a hero, a mystic”. It’s a lot, but ends up being justified by the ensuing spectacle.
