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Dya Singh's impact on the world music stage has been short of phenomenal. He sings about
spirituality in his native Punjabi (with occasional English explanations) and blends
traditional music with modern and contemporary trends. He has single-handedly taken
the traditional Sikh spiritual music of his ancestral Punjab (frontier province on
the border of present day India and Pakistan, south of Afghanistan) into the world music
stage reaching out from his source indigenous music to fusion with music from other
parts of the world. He attributes his unique music to his birth and formative years
in multiracial Malaysia, to staunch Sikh parents (his father was a Sikh missionary
and minstrel sent to Malaysia from Punjab), and the multicultural opportunities in
Australia.
Today Dya Singh heads one of the foremost 'world' music groups in
Australia named after him and has six albums in seven short years. The group
was born in 1993. He has twice been awarded 'Instrumentalist of the year' by
SAMIA (South Australian Music Industry awards). The group has twice been
nominated 'World Music Group of the year' winning it once. The group now
travels widely throughout the world and is highly acclaimed by both Sikh and
alternative mainstream audiences.
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