HASAN RAHEEM WANTS TO MAKE THE WHOLE ROOM FEEL AT HOME

Wrapping up his biggest global tour yet, the Pakistani indie pop breakout reflects on borderless collaborations, global ambitions and why his Ammi still keeps him grounded.

- By Shamani Joshi

Hasan Raheem knows how to read the room. Whether he’s closing out a sold-out show at New York’s Brooklyn Steel by playing “Nach Punjaban” to a venue full of cheering desi or giving in to encore requests, sometimes even thrice, it’s obvious he wants to make sure the crowd leaves with the same level of energy they walked in with.

“It’s a very two-way thing for me,” he tells Rolling Stone India, speaking backstage at his New York stop earlier this month. “I think they [the audience] do much more magic than we do at the end of the day.”

On the come-up since his 2020 breakout “Aisay Kaisay” hit mercurial levels of virality, Pakistani singer-songwriter Hasan Raheem has just wrapped up his biggest global run yet off the back of his 2025 album Dil Kay Parday. Having built a cult following with his silky blend of R&B, lo-fi, indie-pop, hip-hop and desi melodies, he’s part of a rising wave of South Asian artists picking up bits and bobs from their local cultures and hot-gluing them into the global pop patchwork.