Spotify Launches 'Haryanvi 101' As Banjaare And Dhanda Nyoliwala Drive The Language's Rise
The new flagship playlist joins a Haryanvi hub Spotify opened in January, after listening to the language there grew almost seven times in three years.
Haryanvi listening on Spotify grew almost sevenfold between February 2023 and February 2026, the company says. In September it added Haryanvi 101, a flagship playlist for the language, to the Haryanvi hub it opened in January.
The other numbers came with it. Over the past year, listening to Hot Hits Haryanvi rose by more than 29 per cent, Trending Now Haryanvi by more than 58 per cent and Rap 91 Haryanvi by more than 18 per cent.
The listeners are no longer only in Haryana and Delhi NCR. Spotify's top cities for Haryanvi now include Jaipur, Agra, Meerut, Bhopal, Lucknow and Bengaluru, and nearly 100 Haryanvi artists sit in the platform's top 5,000 artists in India.
"The audience for Haryanvi music was always there, but the emergence of fresh, modern sounds coupled with rooted storytelling is driving the growth of the language to a whole new level," said Unni Nambudripad, head of editorial at Spotify India.
Two names behind it
Spotify picked out two acts.
One is Banjaare, the duo with two No. 1 songs on Spotify's Top Songs chart for India, "Bairan" and "Barsaat". Both in Haryanvi, both on the national chart.
The other is rapper Dhanda Nyoliwala, who had eight tracks on the 200-position India chart in the week before the announcement:
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- "Boom Shaka", with Hindi hip-hop star Kr$na
- "Do Numbari", from the Mirzapur: The Movie soundtrack
- His feature on Punjabi singer Navaan Sandhu's "Kath Lagda"
- "Russian Bandana", the song that broke him, now past 240 million Spotify streams
- Four tracks from his top 10 album Kohram
Across the border, so to speak
Look at where those eight songs come from. A Hindi film soundtrack, a Hindi rap collaboration, a Punjabi pop single and his own album, all charting in the same week. The biggest name in Haryanvi rap is being booked by the film industry and by stars from the scenes next door.
Spotify gave the language a hub first and a flagship list after. Haryanvi 101 is meant as a way in for listeners who didn't grow up on the music, and going by a sevenfold rise in three years, a good number of them already have.
"It shows that when the music connects, the language doesn't have to be a boundary," Nyoliwala said.
(Source: Spotify India statement)
