Dya Singh (Australia)

Dya Singh's impact on the world music stage has been nothing short of phenomenal. He sings about spirituality in his native Punjabi (with occasional English explanations) and blends traditional music with modern and contemporary trends - country & western and new accoustic music. 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.