“Sweetheart, as the world wrestles with ways to make more money, this dude was simply born to shine” (Ho, paise-poose baare billo soche duniya, Jatt paida hoya bas chhaun vaaste).
Thus goes the refrain of Diljit Dosanjh’s super-hit track Born to Shine from his record-breaking 2020 music album G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time). Dressed in a crisp white kurta-chadaraa (a traditional Punjabi outfit), a designer vest, paired with aviators and a diamond-encrusted watch, the Punjabi vocalist opened his electric performance at Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show with this song in June 2024. Dosanjh’s high-ankle Air Jordans added a fresh layer of groove to the otherwise all-desi vibe.
Fallon introduced Diljit as the ‘greatest Punjabi artist on the planet’; it was a landmark moment as it was the first time that a Punjabi artist was invited to the iconic show. This, however, has not been a stand-alone accomplishment for the singer. In the last few years, Dosanjh has been encountering a good number of firsts: being the first turban-donning Punjabi artist and actor to have been accepted as a lead protagonist in mainstream Hindi films and in the Punjabi film industry as well. He is the first Indian artist to have been featured on the Billboard Global charts, the first Punjabi language artist to have performed at the Coachella music festival, and the list goes on.
