Desi
Desi is a catch-all tag for music by people from South Asia and its diaspora, from Bollywood and Punjabi pop to hip hop and indie.
The word comes from 'desh', meaning country or homeland, and is used by people from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to describe themselves and their culture. As a music label it does not point to one sound; it groups artists by shared heritage. In Britain the word is also used for British Asian music, such as club nights that play bhangra.
- Family
- Indian
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A broad heading
- From
- South Asia
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 3%
About 2,500 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have desi among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Desi artists
Pritam
Vishal-Shekhar
Arijit Singh
Karan Aujla
Sachin-Jigar
Atif Aslam
Yo Yo Honey Singh
Amit Trivedi
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
AP Dhillon
The desi artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.