Gurdas Maan
Born in 1957 in Giddarbaha, Punjab, Gurdas Maan turned his 1980 breakout 'Dil Da Mamla Hai' into a four-decade career spanning folk, bhangra-pop and film, becoming the only Punjabi singer to win the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer. He grew up without much exposure to Hindi film music, absorbing instead the wandering folk singers, fakirs and Sufi voices who passed through his village, plus the folk broadcasts of All India Radio and Radio Pakistan. He remains one of the most covered and cited elders of modern Punjabi music, name-checked by younger stars like Diljit Dosanjh as a formative influence.
Maan has said that as a boy of seven or eight he tried writing songs to the metre of Yamla Jatt's tunes, and that plainspoken, tumbi-driven storytelling voice is audible underneath Maan's own folk-pop phrasing.
listen forYamla Jatt's 1963 'Das Main Ki Pyar Wichon Khattya' and Maan's 1980 breakout 'Dil Da Mamla Hai' share the same unhurried, conversational folk pulse, even with decades and instrumentation between them.
Maan has described growing up on Radio Jullundur and Radio Pakistan's folk programming, where Surinder Kaur's voice was a fixture; her warmth and clarity of diction echo in Maan's own melodic phrasing.
listen forSurinder Kaur's 1943 debut 'Maavan Te Dhiyan' and Maan's 'Mamla Gadbad Hai' both lean on a clean, front-of-the-beat vocal line riding light folk percussion.
Alongside Surinder Kaur, Asa Singh Mastana was one of the All India Radio folk voices Maan grew up hearing; his Heer- and jugni-based storytelling style feeds Maan's own narrative folk songs.
listen forMastana's 'Kali Teri Gut' and Maan's 1983 hit 'Chhalla' both stretch a single narrative image across a slow-building folk melody.