"Pasoori" (, ) is a Punjabi and Urdu-language single by Pakistani singers Ali Sethi and debutant Shae Gill. It was released on 6 February 2022 as the sixth song of season 14 (episode two) of Coke Studio Pakistan and was subsequently released on YouTube on 7 February 2022. "Pasoori" was the first Coke Studio song and the first Pakistani song to feature on Spotify's "Viral 50 - Global" chart. It was featured in episode 4 of the Disney+ miniseries Ms. Marvel as well as on the soundtrack of the off-Broadway production, Monsoon Wedding The Musical (2023) directed by Mira Nair. In August 2022, "Pasoori" became only the third song in the 14-year history of Coke Studio to reach 300 million views on YouTube, and on 14 October 2022, with 410 million views on YouTube, "Pasoori" became the most-watched Coke Studio music video of all time.
According to data released by Spotify in December 2022, "Pasoori" was the most-streamed Pakistani song globally as well as the most-streamed song in Pakistan in 2022. It was also the most-searched song in the world in 2022, as per Google Trends' "Year in Search 2022" report. In December 2022, "Pasoori" became the first Pakistani song to enter YouTube's Global Top Music Videos chart (week of December 16–22). On 21 January 2023, "Pasoori" hit 500 million views on YouTube, making it the first Coke Studio music video to reach this milestone. In June 2023, a remake of the song was released by T-Series for the Hindi film Satyaprem Ki Katha, sung by Arijit Singh and Tulsi Kumar.
Background
Music producer Abdullah Siddiqui noted that the song is a mix of various cultural influences: "you get to listen to a little bit of the classical tune of a rubab along with a modern reggaetón beat." Shae Gill was discovered by composer Zulfiqar Jabbar Khan through Instagram where she regularly posted cover versions of various songs. In an interview, Gill stated: "Coke Studio producer Zulfiqar Jabbar Khan (Xulfi) found my Instagram page and checked out my singing. He liked my songs and later contacted me via direct message, saying, 'I want you to sing for Coke Studio.' The rest is history."
In addition to the lead vocalists and musicians, the music video of the song also features Pakistani social activist and Bharatanatyam exponent Sheema Kirmani. In a text message to Sethi, Kirmani shared that while conceptualizing her dance movements for the song, she "did not want to go along the line of literal depiction of words, but [instead] felt that the movements should be abstract but suggestive of the emotions contained within the song and music."
Composition and songwriting
Sethi shared in an interview that the inspiration for the song came to him as he was driving from Faisalabad to Lahore and noticed a quote in Punjabi on the back of a jingle truck that said "aag lavaan teri majbooriyan nu" ( and compulsions). He mentions that he was struck by these words: "I felt that this was such an amazing expression of the Punjabi language. This should be part of a song somehow." He describes that the words inspired him to brainstorm further to come up with lyrics that would go well with that expression and add weight to the song, and that is when he came up with "aan jaan di pasoori nu" (). Sethi has mentioned that he "wanted to write a song that felt classical but also relevant to contemporary life."
Sethi revealed that "Pasoori" took around one year to develop and that his goal was to infuse "the Turkic, Indic, Arab, Persian, and...the global placeless, ubiquitous 'beats' vibe that is also our inheritance." He noted that the folk and classical musical traditions the song draws from — including Sufi and qawwali — have centuries-long origins and therefore could not be classified as either Indian or Pakistani. Sethi has also shared that he sent the initial tune for the song on a voice note to composer Zulfiqar Jabbar Khan, and that the lyrics of the song were not finalized until about 12 hours before the recording.