Dressed in all black, with a cap on, a diamond necklace glinting in the light, sneakers and a tattoo on the back of his hand, Punjabi-Canadian singer-songwriter, Kunwarr, stuck to the rapperwala style when he visited the mid-day office last week. Kunwarr is among the many Punjabi musicians who have moved bag and baggage to Canada to find their feet in the music industry there. The Chandigarh-bred, Toronto-based musician beeped on our radar after he released his latest single, Lavish, earlier this month.

Songwriter Kunwarr released a few pop songs early in his career in 2020, with a strong R&B and hip-hop influence. “I started this journey as a singer, but I was always listening to hip-hop since the beginning. As I started my musical journey, I experimented with pop but eventually realised that hip-hop is where my home is,” says the 24-year-old musician. We are curious about his journey. How did a Punjabi boy from Chandigarh start making music and move to Toronto in his early 20s? “I moved from Punjab to Mumbai to study filmmaking at Whistling Woods International where I became close to many people from the music department.” Hailing from a conservative Punjabi family, he knew he “had to take a route which was normal”. But no risk, means no ishq. So he tricked his parents  by pursuing a BSc in filmmaking, “but I just told them I’m doing a BSc in Mumbai, not that it was in filmmaking.” And the rest almost seems history now.