‘Pasoori’ becomes first Pakistan-made music video to cross 1b YouTube views

Ali Sethi, Shae Gill duet also racks up hundreds of millions of Spotify streams and gains international recognition

Coke Studio’s 2022 hit Pasoori has become the first Pakistan-made music video to cross 1 billion views on YouTube, cementing its status as one of the biggest successes in the show’s history. The official Coke Studio page confirmed the milestone in an Instagram post on Sunday, thanking fans for streaming the song, singing along to it and making it their own.

The platform also shared a reel featuring singers Ali Sethi and Shae Gill alongside producers Zulfiqar ‘Xulfi’ Khan and Abdullah Siddiqui, acknowledging the fans who helped push the track past the billion-view mark.

 

 

 

 

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The soulful duet was released on February 7, 2022, and reached the milestone just under four years and seven months later. The achievement adds to a string of records the song has already set.

Pasoori was Spotify’s most-streamed Pakistani song in the year of its release and remains Sethi and Gill’s most-streamed track on the platform, with close to 405 million streams.

 

 

 

 

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Its popularity quickly extended beyond Pakistan, inspiring a wave of covers across Pakistan, India and elsewhere. The song was later featured on the soundtrack of Disney’s Ms Marvel, whose lead character is Pakistani-American.

Pasoori also caught the attention of Bollywood, with singer Arijit Singh releasing his own rendition of the track. The move drew backlash from fans, who accused the Indian film industry of attempting to co-opt the song.