Have you got your tickets yet for Ali Sethi? Still a chance here's how
Ali Sethi is excited to announce a North American tour in January and February, 2023. The dates kick off January 18 in Chicago, IL and conclude in Montclair, NJ on February 19. He plays at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, CA on January 28. Tickets are on-sale now and available here. Tomorrow, November 12, Ali will play a sold-out show at New York City’s Irving Plaza. All dates are listed below.
Ali Sethi on tour
11/12 - Irving Plaza - New York, NY - SOLD OUT
1/18 - House of Blues - Chicago, IL
1/19 - St. Andrews Hall - Detroit, MI
1/24 - The Commodore Ballroom - Vancouver, BC
1/25 - The Crocodile - Seattle, WA
1/27 - August Hall - San Francisco, CA
1/28 - Fonda Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
1/31 - The Sinclair - Boston, MA
2/1 - The Theatre Of Living Art - Philadelphia, PA
2/17 - The Fillmore - Silver Spring, VA
2/18 - Danforth Music Hall - Toronto, ON
2/19 - Wellmont Theatre - Montclair, NJ
Sethi - a musician, producer, author, and a pioneer in the global arts scene - was recently named to TIME Magazines “2022 TIME100 Next list.” With his single, “Pasoori,” Sethi became the first Pakistani musician to top the Spotify Global Viral chart. Born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan, Ali Sethi came to the U.S. to study at Harvard. He infuses his music with the same multitudinous space that Sethi occupies - Punjabi folk mixed with contemporary beats and a queer aesthetic from South Asia. Sethi rose to prominence with the publishing of his debut novel in 2009, The Wishmaker. Since then, he has been involved in numerous musical, film and literary projects all inspired by his unique identity, a diasporic voice fusing ancient artistic inspiration with a thoroughly modern and urgent outlook.
More About ALI SETHI:
“A love song that sounds like a threat,” is how The New Yorker describes “Pasoori,” ALI SETHI's 'earwormy' single that topped Spotify’s viral chart and put South Asia on the music map of 2022. An ingenious blend of Punjabi folk tunes and zany beats, the 'global phenomenon' "Pasoori" (The Guardian) has garnered over 436 million views on YouTube and 185 million streams on Spotify since it was released in February 2022; now, the song plays nonstop in American clubs, restaurants and wedding halls and was also featured on an episode of Disney+’s Ms. Marvel.
What is the method to "Pasoori"’s madness? “I wanted to write a song that was rooted in ancient traditions but also spoke to the world as I find it,” says 38-year-old ALI SETHI, an author and Harvard alum who trained for 12 years with gurus of voice in his native Lahore, Pakistan. Drawing on the classical theme of forbidden love, ALI SETHI says he wrote the rebellious lyrics for “Pasoori” (“set fire to your worries, to waiting and to hurries”) in response to the travel ban on Pakistani musicians in next-door India, where many of his fans reside. But, he was also thinking of other prohibitions. “As a queer person of color who now lives in the West, I wanted to write a song that gestured at my spiritual inheritance, which elevates longing and marginality from a place of powerlessness to a site of artistic exuberance.” It’s no wonder that the music video for ‘ragaton’ banger “Pasoori,” which ALI SETHI helped design, is full of sights and sounds that sit on the cusp of “folk” and “woke” sensibilities: a dark-skinned girl with gemstones on her face, a pair of boys twirling as they perform a traditional kathak dance--the hems of their skirts flaring, a harmonious blend of three different stringed instruments--related in twang and timbre, but, originating from different parts of the world (the Spanish guitar, the Turkish baglama, the Balochi banjo).
Such playful connections — between masculine and feminine, East and West, folk and woke — have always figured prominently in ALI SETHI's music, which transforms South Asia’s love of metaphors and multiples into a panacea for our polarized world. Whether imagining a traditional poetry recital as a congregation of refugees in the video for his lullaby “Chandni Raat,” or vocalizing the monsoon in a symphony about war and migration at Carnegie Hall, ALI SETHI insists on making connections between disparate identities and genres until they come loose from their associations. “I load my songs with baroque themes and metaphors because they allow for multiple interpretations. It’s a gloriously campy worldview that gave me solace as an out-of-place kid in Pakistan. The imagery invites you in, teases you, and seduces you with its romantic symbolism. Then, it breaks your heart. Is this a song about forbidden love between two countries, two tribes, or two people? I want to make songs that empower every member of my audience.”
As his year of magical thinking draws to a close, ALI SETHI has much to look forward to: releasing new music, and working on multiple recording projects and live shows with stops in London, New York, Dubai, and beyond.
