South Asian artists starting to add Sask. stops on tours, but challenges still remain

Saskatchewan is becoming a more common stop for South Asian artists on tour, but some challenges still remain in the comparatively small market the province offers.

Gujarati singer Aditya Gadhvi was in Regina last October. Prem Dhillon, a Punjabi musician, was in Saskatoon in November.

Most recently, Indian singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad chose Saskatoon as a stop for his 2024 Silhouettes Tour. Kuhad is a major indie folk pop star who has lent his voice to Bollywood movies and TV shows. Last month, he opened for Ed Sheeran in Mumbai.

Unfortunately for his local fans, Kuhad had to cancel his Saskatoon show, which was supposed to be Monday night. Kuhad's manager Nicole Barsalona said they had trouble finding an appropriate venue after not selling enough tickets at a larger venue.

Prateek Kuhad, left, opened for Ed Sheeran in March. (Submited by Prateek Kuhad )

Despite the hiccup, Kuhad said he's been received well by North American audiences, with concerts getting bigger over the years.

Kuhad said he faced a lot of backlash during his early days for singing some of his songs in English. Now some of his most popular tracks, including cold/mess and Co2, are in English.

"Society always sets rules and expectations, but ultimately if you want to do something, you will go and do it and it happens if you try hard enough. That's the vision I had for myself," he said.

"As people open up, audiences are opening up. We're seeing more South Asian artists and I want it to happen more and more."

Kuhad said that when he first did his first North American tour in 2016, people were surprised to see an Indian artist doing English songs and selling out venues.

He said it was more of a novelty back then. He'd get comments like, "Your English is so good, you can sing so well in English."

He said people had stereotypes that Asians couldn't speak or sing in English like anyone else. Now, as more South Asian artists get exposure, he said it is normalizing cultural integration and breaking stereotypes.

Filipino artists finding success

It's not just Indian artists. The Philippine Madrigal Singers, an internationally awarded choral group, came in April and performed three times in and around Regina.

Nova Bautista-Hunter played a big role in getting the group to add a stop here on its tour across Canada. She said it took four years to make it happen.

"It was a sold-out show," she said. "We were only planning for one show in Regina, and then we did another stop in Lumsden. And then it became, why don't we have them sing at the United Church?"

The Philippine Madrigal Singers performed three times in and around Regina in late April. (Submitted by The Philippine Madrigal Singers)

Bautista-Hunter said there was a time, about 10 years ago, when there would only be one big show a year for the Filipino community here.

Now there are many more mainstream artists and bands coming to Saskatchewan. She mentioned Moira Dela Torre and Gigi de Lana as examples of popular Filipino artists who will be performing in Saskatoon this summer.

Chris Rod, chairman for events at the Filipino Canadian National Congress, said that so many South Asian artists are starting to come here that it can be difficult for all of them to sell tickets.

"Our community is so hard working, not only in the Filipino community, all the other communities that have migrated here in Canada are," he said.

Breaking in takes time

Meanwhile, with more South Asian people immigrating to Saskatchewan, some are trying to make it as musicians here.

There have been some massive success stories. Hitesh Sharma, the Regina-based Indian rapper, producer and musician better known as Tesher, rode social media to viral fame, eventually releasing a song with American star Jason Derulo. Brian Mendoza, a Regina-based singer songwriter whose family is from the Philippines, has more than 800,000 subscribers on YouTube.

But some others looking to break into the scene haven't reached those heights — at least not yet.

Biresh Sharma is a record label owner and music producer originally from India, but now in Regina. He said it was hard to find venues and establish himself as a local artist only a few years ago.

"We faced a lot of difficulties. We would struggle with the venues, we would struggle with the bars at the start. They didn't accept it at first because they were scared. What is it going to be? How is it going to be?" he said.

Sharma said people eventually warmed up to Bollywood and Punjabi music, and now they're excited to book him.

"We started getting calls from different clubs all over Saskatchewan. We were getting calls from Prince Albert. 'Can you do an event over here? We really love what you're doing. We really love Bollywood music and we would love people from South Asia be a part of our club,'" he said.