But the 30-year-old isn’t just a growing internet sensation; he is a proven talent to local industry experts.
Rai is the first Punjabi artist in Aotearoa to receive financial backing from NZ on Air, after being selected as one of 20 recipients of the 2025 New Music Pan-Asian focus round in May.
Punjabi artist Yogesh Rai moved to New Zealand alone in 2013 when he 18. Photo / Big Shot Vibes
The $11,000 grant, created to address the under-representation of Pan-Asian artists in Aotearoa, pays for the recording, video content and promotional costs of Billiyan Akhiyan.
“I belong to Punjab and I started writing [songs] from a very early age,” Rai said.
He moved to New Zealand alone in 2013 at age 18, “in search of a better future”, leaving behind his parents and two older brothers.
It was a struggle at first. He wanted to move somewhere “where nobody is”. But he ended up finding his uncle and aunt in One Tree Hill and lived with them for a year.
Rai found he couldn’t easily talk about his emotions. But writing helped.
“Writing was the best way for me to express my feelings rather than sharing them with anyone,” he said.
It wasn’t until two, or three, or four years ago – Rai can’t quite remember – when he started performing, and was noticed by New Zealand music label Big Shot Vibes at a house party.
Finally, he thinks it’s “paying out now”.
Rai eventually started writing lyrics in English. In 2024, through Big Shot Vibes, he released Black, a hip-hop track featuring fast cars, skull-and-crossbones and some English rap.
“That worked well,” he thought.
Rai plans to add English lyrics to his music, hinting he’s experimenting with a couple of songs. But nothing is quite like singing in his first language.
“The majority of my writing is in Punjabi because that’s how I’ve been brought up,” he said. “That’s the only reason for writing in Punjabi.”
Back in Phagwara, a city of just over 100,000 in northern India, music was a way of life.
“Once you wake up in the morning and you go to school, there is music playing. It’s religious music that’s playing. When you come back, your mum is cooking and cleaning, and even at that time, there is music playing. At night, [when watching] movies … the music is always playing. Even outside on the streets,” Rai said.
Rai’s soundscape is pulsating energy with Punjabi-honey melodies. It has heat and confidence. The inspiration, however, is found in quiet: “When I stay close to nature and I’m alone, that’s when I write the best,” he said.
The best place for Rai to write is where he lives now in rural Franklin.
“I live on a farm,” he said. “It [helps] connect me to the old roots back in India … there are cattle and sheep and everything. Birds chirping every day in the morning … I can just sit and write the best that I can.”
If it’s not nature, it’s family.
“They really motivate me to keep doing the music. It doesn’t matter what the result is, just keep going,” Rai said.
Rai is one of several artists in a growing Punjabi music scene in New Zealand. Auckland-based bhangra sensation Lovepreet Brar (who in 2016 made national headlines for involvement in fraud) garners more than 217,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. This week, global megastar Diljit Dosanjh – perhaps the most famous contemporary Punjabi artist – is performing for the second time at Auckland’s Spark Arena.
Rai thinks he knows why Punjabi music easily crosses borders.
“I would say [Punjabi music] has adapted to Western style pretty qickly.
“It’s booming drastically,” he said, adding the music evolves every six months and adapts to the changing industry. “I think that’s what is taking it further.”
Rai said he already has a few new songs ready – and they won’t be anything like Billiyan Akhiyan.
“It’s going to be sad-romantic,” he said. “I haven’t named it yet.”
Varsha Anjali is a journalist in the lifestyle team at the Herald. Based in Auckland, she covers culture, travel and more.