Kaifi Khalil

By blending the traditional sounds of Balochi music with the modern textures of 21st century pop, Kaifi Khalil became a star in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India during the early 2020s. He was born on September 2, 1996, in Karachi, Pakistan. His father passed away when Khalil was still young, and the death put a financial strain on the family. Khalil often skipped school during his troubled adolescence and eventually turned to music as a coping mechanism. After launching a YouTube account during his late teens, he began uploading his own performance videos in 2016, the first of which was a cover of the Balochi song "Mani Tawe Dost." By 2020, he'd begun releasing original songs like "Daagh E Daatha," as well. Another original song, "Kana Yaari," was written during the same era and released several years later, when Khalil made his career-launching appearance on the Pakistani TV program Coke Studio in 2022. "Kana Yaari" became a hit, earning more than 16 million digital streams on Spotify alone and laying the foundation for an even bigger hit, "Kahani Suno 2.0," which arrived later that year. The song became a Number 1 hit in Bangladesh and a Top 40 hit in India, where it reached Number 6 on the Top 100: Inde chart and and Number 13 on the Billboard India Songs chart.