Coke Studio, Pakistan's highly anticipated music platform, revealed its artist line-up for Season 7, which is due to launch on September 7.
The show's new producers, Bilal Maqsood and Faisal Kapadia of Strings are set to showcase a diverse line up of pop, rock, folk and sufi artists from different genres, alongside a reimagined house band and other guest musicians.
Featuring this season is a line-up of some of Pakistan’s most prolific mainstream, traditional and upcoming artists including:
Abbas Ali Khan
Abida Parveen
Abrar-ul-Haq
Akhtar Chanal Zahri
Asrar
Fariha Parvez
Humera Channa
Javed Bashir
Jawad Ahmed
Jimmy Khan
Komal Rizvi
Meesha Shafi
Momin Durrani
Naseer Shahab
Niazi Brothers
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Rachel Viccaji
Rahma Ali
Sajjad Ali
Sanam Saeed
Sara Haider
Usman Riaz
Ustaad Raees Khan
Ustaad Tafu Khan
Zoe Viccaji
Zoheb Hasan
 |
| Some of the featured artists. – Publicity Photo |
The house band this season includes: Aahad Nayani on drums, Babar Ali Khanna on dholak, Imran Akhoond on guitars, Jaffer Ali Zaidi on keyboard, Khalid Khan on bass, Sikandar Mufti on percussions with Momin Durrani, Rachel Viccaji and Sara Haider as backing vocalists.
Coke Studio Season 7’s guest musicians include:
Aamir Zaki
Adeel Bukhari
Arsalan Rabbani
Faraz Anwar
Ghulam Abbas
Hamza Jafri
Jaffer Hussain
Javed Iqbal
Kaleem Khan
Mubashir Admani
Omran Shafique
Sajid Ali
Saleem Khan
Shallum Xavier
Tanweer Hussain
Umer Daraz
“Taking the reigns of Pakistan's biggest music platform is a feeling that can't be expressed in words. This has been a magical ride for us, 23 artists, 22 musicians and 28 songs. As producers we couldn't have asked for more. It's all about celebrating Pakistani music and our artists,” said Strings on producing the upcoming season.
Ranging from traditional Eastern, Modern Western and regionally inspired pop, rock, sufi, folk and qawalli music, this season pays homage to the Sound of the Nation. In a series of firsts, Season 7 will delve into new unexplored genres while also touching upon the role that film music has had in defining our musical history by visiting quintessentially Pakistani film music within Coke Studio context.
In a previous interview with Dawn, Bilal Maqsood said, “We’re going to stay true to the CS feel and continue to merge elements of folk with modern music. There are so many untapped musical treasures in Pakistan and we’re looking forward to exploring into them. At the same time, we’re hoping to bring back the oomph that has been missing from the show during the past few years. Coke Studio was spectacular up till Season 3 but after that, it lost out on its element of surprise. We plan to bring it back.”
With these new additions, Coke Studio endeavours to cultivate a sense of national pride and make the platform more accessible to a diverse audience of viewers.
Fans are waiting in anticipation for the new season:
