2024 Bengaluru music recap – The Hindu

We are in the thick of the live music industry’s peak season and Bengaluru has been part of India’s mega-concerts over the last few weeks. Sure, we are not getting Coldplay, but Punjabi stars such as Diljit Dosanjh and Karan Aujla have made sure to add Bengaluru to their nationwide tours.

A week later, Karan Aujla was belting out his hit songs, ‘Tauba Tauba’ and ‘Softly’ as part of his It Was All A Dream India Tour, which stopped by the city on December 13. While some had expressed surprise that a South Indian city would become a must-stop for Punjabi performers, it says a lot about Bengaluru’s wider population that enjoys all kinds of music. These performers show up not just to boost their social media feeds, as plenty of footage from Dosanjh and Aujla’s respective concerts show thousands singing along. 

In fact, it is the streaming numbers that guide these artistes to booking a concert in Bengaluru. The likes of Arijit Singh — allegedly the most streamed artiste in India on Spotify for four years in a row now — kicked off his India tour in the city on November 30, performing hits old and new. 

Dosanjh, Aujla and Singh can easily claim to have sold over 20,000 tickets each for their respective concerts in the city. 

Seasoned Bollywood powerhouse vocalist Sunidhi Chauhan too stopped by as part of her I Am Home tour, performing in the city on October 26. Earlier in the year, another gilded playback voice — Shreya Ghoshal — made sure her All Hearts Tour stopped by Bengaluru on May 11. 

Among international artistes, Canadian rockstar Bryan Adams returned to the city as part of his biggest India tour, performing on December 14, with over 18,000 in attendance. Norwegian EDM artist Alan Walker reportedly drew over 25,000 attendees in the city on October 4, and audiences were treated to a drone light show featuring 500 drones in action, plus a guest appearance from actor Alia Bhatt. 

Echoes of Earth 2024
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Special Arrangement

A lot of these concerts have taken place mostly on the outskirts of the city, closer to the airport at venues such as Embassy International Riding School or at NICE Grounds in Madavara. While previous generations may have seen legendary international rock and metal artistes filling Palace Grounds in the past, today Bengaluru handles large scale concerts just like back then, although with (comparatively) better infrastructure.

There has been a solid resurgence of music festivals as well over the years, from newer ones such as Bandland bringing down Avenged Sevenfold and Extreme in November, to Echoes of Earth running a steady ship at the start of December. Bangalore Open Air too, kept its date with metalheads, hosting a two-day edition in February featuring In Flames and Kreator.

Where there was rock and metal at Bangalore Open Air and Bandland, electronic music fans had DGTL’s continuing presence in November, headlined by the likes of Chase & Status. K-pop fans, for their part, cheered along to the slick choreography and singing of artistes Hyolyn and Suho from EXO at the K-Wave fest in October. 

Alongside the mega-concerts, promoters in India have also been betting on international artistes like Enigma, singer-songwriter Ben Howard, Norwegian prog band Leprous, American tech-metal band Animals As Leaders, post-rock band God Is An Astronaut and Indian-origin Australian trio Glass Beams to pack the houses when it comes to mid-sized shows that scale up to over 1,000 attendees, with the exception of Glass Beams, who played a sold-out show at Fandom at Gilly’s Redefined to over 600 people. 

Indie favorites like Anuv Jain, Prateek Kuhad and more have also taken on nearly mega-level concerts in the city, as did rap star Hanumankind’s victory lap in the city he called home in September, on the back of releasing his hit song ‘Big Dawgs’ with producer Kalmi. The year closed out with a few thousand in attendance for Goa/New Delhi act Peter Cat Recording Co.’s rare return to Bengaluru on December 28, promoting their globally-lauded new album Beta.

Bryan Adams So Happy It Hurts, Bengaluru
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Special Arrangement

Up next, British pop star Ed Sheeran is making his way and the demand already speaks for itself — among the first mega-concerts of 2025 in Bengaluru will see Sheeran play not one but two dates in the city on February 8 and February 9 at NICE Grounds. As long as these venues exist, the city can lay claim to hosting mega-concerts like few other cities in the country.