From Rihanna to Diljit: The headliners who rocked the music scene in 2024
As we bid goodbye to 2024, we bring you a roundup of all that happened in the world of music this year.
From heart-winning ballads and foot-tapping scythe rap songs to classical melodies and peppy pop-rock anthems, 2024 was a magical and enriching year musically—in terms of talent, variety, innovation, and entertainment.
This year, Indian music fans listened to a variety of songs—from Arijit Singh’s Sajni (Laapataa Ladies), Ami Je Tomar (Bhool Bhulaiya 3), and Karan Aujila’s Tauba Tauba (Bad Newz), to Telugu hits Chuttamalle (Devara: Part 1) and Sooseki (Pushpa 2), Tamil songs Asaa Kooda and Katchi Sera by young singer and composer Sai Abhyankar, and more!
According to the digital streaming service Spotify, Pehle Bhi Main from the movie Animal was the most-streamed song in India in 2024, racking up over 228 million streams.
Indian pop numbers like Husn (Anuv Jain) and Heeriye (Jasleen Royal) also won the hearts of fans.
Punjabi music made its impact felt again in India with hits from Diljit Dosanjh, Karan Aujila, Badshah, Yo Yo Honey Singh, and many more.
Hanumankind; Source: Social media
This year saw the rise of new stars, including Hanumankind, aka, Kerala-born rapper Sooraj Cherukat, who rose to global fame with his song ‘Big Dawg’.
BBC says, “In Big Dawgs, Cherukat offers an alternative to the bling and opulence associated with mainstream rap by ditching flashy cars and choosing to focus on small city stuntmen, who come from poor families and are part of a dying art form in India.”
With Big Dawg, Hanumankind topped all music charts, surpassing Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us.
From around the world
We all wanted our coffee strong this year, and American singer and songwriter Sabrina Carpenter served it right with her superhit single Espresso. She followed that with another hit, Please, Please, Please.
Bruno Mars had an amazing year with his collaboration with Lady Gaga on Die with a Smile and Rosé on APT.
English singer Charli XCX’s pop single Brat inspired the social media trend of Brat Summer, which embraces imperfections and being yourself, besides influencing the US presidential election.
With Charli posting on X, “Kamala IS brat,” the singer-songwriter—so much so the neon lime green featured on the album’s cover came to be officially known as “brat green”.
At the Paris Olympics this year, rapper Snoop Dogg made his presence felt known at almost every event. Along with Dr Dre, Dogg welcomed the sporting event to Los Angeles for the 2028 summer games.
2024 also saw some great comebacks. Thanks to Deadpool & Wolverine, music fans saw the revival of NYSNC’s hit Bye, Bye, Bye, with their feet tapping to the song’s groovy dance moves.
The R&B king, Usher, returned to the spotlight with his album Coming Home, and so did Jennifer Lopez with her first solo album in ten years.
Concerts see a lot of interest
2024 saw renewed interest in live concerts globally.
The biggest this year was Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The record-breaking concert tour featured 149 shows across five continents from March 2023 to December 2024. In Germany, many fans, failing to secure tickets, crowded a hillock next to the concert venue to enjoy the highly anticipated event!
According to Cleartrip, the platform saw a 32% increase in bookings to Thailand and a 49% jump for Singapore owing to Taylor Swift and Coldplay's concerts in the Southeast Asian nations.
In India too, fans attended concerts in large numbers to catch their favourite singers and bands in action—from Akon and Boney M at the Shillong Cherry Blossom Festival, to Bryan Adams, Dua Lipa, and Maroon 5 across various cities in the country.
Image source: X
One of the biggest concert tours in India has been that of Diljit Dosanjh. The singer of G.O.A.T. and Born to Shine fame kicked off his 10-city Dil-Luminati India Tour 2024 in October this year in Delhi to a packed stadium.
However, these concerts brought to light the lack of quality performance spaces in the country—with several venues facing instances of theft, poor sanitation, and issues with respect to crowd control and overall management.
In fact, seeing the conditions and experiences of fans, Dosanjh even announced that he will not perform in India again until it improves its concert infrastructure.
Dosanjh is scheduled to perform his last show in his hometown of Ludhiana on December 31—the tickets for which got sold out in minutes.
Meanwhile, British band Coldplay made a lot of news when it announced the dates for its India tour in January 2025. While fans were eager to get their hands on the tickets, many were left disappointed.
Ticketing site BookMyShow had a ‘ticket scalping’ experience when tickets for the shows in Mumbai and Ahmedabad were sold out within minutes.
Many fans showed their disappointment on social media, highlighting how they can’t be “fixed” (a pun on Fix You, a popular song by Coldplay) after their heartbreaking experience.
When it comes to private concerts, the Ambanis sure know how to throw grand musical galas! Headliners including Rihanna, Justin Bieber, The Backstreet Boys, Pitbull and Katy Perry performed at the wedding of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in July this year, leaving many fans yearning for their favourite stars.
Earlier this year, Sunburn, one of the largest music festivals in India, faced backlash from locals in Goa for various reasons, including noise pollution and traffic congestion, during the busiest time of the year. Similarly, another popular music festival—Echoes of Earth—announced it was postponing its Goa edition indefinitely “due to unforeseen circumstances”.
Ricky Kej, Shobu Yarlagadda, and Biren Ghose on AI and tech integration in music and film industries
AI in music
2024 was the year of artificial intelligence (AI), and the music industry too jumped on the bandwagon.
Celebrated Indian music composer AR Rahman took the help of this technology to revive the voices of late singers Bamba Bakya and Shahul Hameed for the song Thimiri Yezhuda in Rajinikanth-starrer Lal Salaam.
Rahman stated, “We took permission from their families and sent deserving remuneration for using their voice algorithms. Technology is not a threat and a nuisance if we use it right.”
On the other hand, many artists, including American singer Billie Eilish, have voiced concerns about the “predatory use of AI” in the music industry.
While AI algorithms are adept at mimicking existing musical styles and generating variations on established themes, a crucial question remains: can AI truly capture the raw emotion and human connection that lies at the heart of great music?
Vijay Subramaniam, Founder and Group CEO of Bengaluru-based Collective Artists Network, does not believe so. While AI might excel at tasks like generating song structures and writing lyrics, he emphasises that creating melodies that resonate with the soul remains a uniquely human ability.
Image Courtesy: Hybe Label
K-pop shines globally
Jungkook may have achieved great success as the main vocalist of the South Korean K-pop band BTS, but nothing can come close to his stupendous career as a solo singer.
His single Seven from his solo album, Golden, ruled the Billboard Hot 100 for a consecutive 15 weeks.
This year’s biggest hit from the K-pop music scene has to be APT. by Rosé and Bruno Mars, which got everyone around the world dancing to its upbeat tunes. Even the uninterested couldn’t stop humming its catchy lyrics.
Here’s a fun fact: In a unique way of protesting against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, the country’s citizens gathered at protest sites and sang K-pop songs to express their discontent with the government.
At the Grammys
At the 66th Annual Grammy Awards this year, Miley Cyrus won her first two Grammys of her career with her single Flowers, which became an overnight success with its empowering lyrics and peppy track.
Indian musicians too had a good run at the Grammys this year.
The late tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain became the first Indian musician to receive three Grammy awards in a single year.
- Best Global Music Album, for the album This Moment by world-fusion band Shakti, which also comprises vocalist Shankar Mahadevan, guitarist John McLaughlin, percussionist V Selvaganesh, and violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan.
- Best Global Music Performance for his contribution to Pashto, a collaboration with Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and flautist Rakesh Chaurasia.
- Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for As We Speak, a collaboration with Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Rakesh Chaurasia.
Music lives on
Earlier this month, the 73-year-old Hussain passed away in San Francisco after battling lung complications for two weeks. The world also lost ghazal singer Pankaj Udhas, American music composer and filmmaker Quincy Jones, and former One Direction member Liam Payne this year.
However, their music still lives on.
Music binds us, soothes us, makes us happy, and brings back many memories. As we wrap up 2024 and welcome 2025, let’s rest assured that music will continue to delight, heal, and comfort us.
2025 promises a great start for fans of pop music with Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour, followed by the concerts of Ed Sheeran, Cigarettes After Sex, Linkin Park, and many more!
Meanwhile, BTS members Jin and j-hope are back from their mandatory military service this year, and it is only a matter of months before the rest of the band is back in action. The K-pop band is expected to release an album this year, followed by a concert tour in 2026.
To paraphrase Rihanna, nothing shall stop the music!
Edited by Swetha Kannan