Pritpal Singh hosted our eighth HomeKirtan & Chat Facebook Live Video program on June 5 with special guest Bhai Sahib Dya Singh from Australia. Coming from a traditional background, he has pioneered new musical pathways, taking Gurbani kirtan into the realm of multicultural world music. Episode includes live music, stories and discussion.

About the Artist

Dya Singh is the master musical interpreter of the traditional Sikh hymns (shabad) with diverse influences from around the globe. Based in Australia, he is acknowledged as the most significant singer/musician in the world today of the Sikh mystical musical tradition, a form that originated in Punjab (now North India/Pakistan) but spread throughout the western World with the recent diaspora of Sikhs worldwide.

Originally from Malaysia, his father was a renowned Sikh spiritual minstrel and Dya learnt the Sikh songs and the art of singing beside his father in the Sikh ‘Gurudwaras’ from the age of five onwards. He stopped singing publicly for almost fifteen years and in 1992 began again to present concerts in Australia.

He turned fully professional in 1995 and his achievements in this time include the release of over 26 CDs as well as tours nationally and to the U.S.A., England, Canada, Singapore, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, UAE (Dubai) and Kenya. Tours have included arts, folk, new-age, world and sacred music festivals worldwide including WOMADelaide, Woodford Folk Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival and the California World Music Festival, to name a few.

Dya Singh has been one of Australia’s pioneers in the development of new Australian ‘World’ music. A Dya Singh performance is many things and moves as the mood requires . . . soothing, uplifting, exhilarating, hypnotic, informative with interaction and improvisation between the musicians and conveying the sense of joy that arises from creativity and spirituality meeting on stage. The music is transformational in that no matter what the context, the music is true to the traditional intention and captures the essential mystical quality that has inspired the Sikhs (and many others) for centuries. The critics are unanimous in their praise of his voice, his control over his material and his innovations and improvisational approach to the music.

Dya Singh has released over 26 CD’s since forming of which some have been recorded by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and sponsored by various Federal and State Government Departments. A Dya Singh concert is an inspirational experience. The music takes you by the heart, soothing in a meditative way and then uplifts with an array of glorious compelling rhythms, blended instruments, drones, wonderful improvisations and a message in words and chants that speaks of acceptance, respect, fulfillment, love and the quest for universal harmony. This is music that changes the World!

Home Kirtan & Chat with Pritpal Singh – Live on Facebook on Fridays at 3 p.m. (EST) 

In these unprecedented times of isolation and quarantine around the world, connection with each other and global sangat feels more important than ever before. Sikh Dharma International is offering this new weekly program –  Home Kirtan & Chat with Pritpal Singh – to offer comfort, connection and upliftment during these times.

We will offer an interactive live video session every Friday at 3 p.m. (EST) on Facebook livestream, Pritpal Singh will bring on a different guest musician to play a shabad with special relevance for these times, and then to chat about it. There will also be time for audience interaction and Q&A!

You are invited to participate in this new and interactive live Shabad Guru program. We hope it will nourish your soul during these challenging times.

Click Here to Watch All Episodes of the HomeKirtan & Chat Program on YouTube!