Photo courtesy of the artist
In the first few seconds of the freshly released “Dama Dam Mast Kalandar 2.0,” a modern reimagining of the wedding hit, shimmering synths and rap verses slice through sounds of the sarangi and harmonium. It’s a defiant duet of legacy and lyricism, as folk singer and musician Mame Khan’s thunderous voice booms against AJRaps‘ bars and beats. It’s also a page-turning moment for Khan, arguably one of India’s most definitive Rajasthani folk artists, as he forges his vision for the future of Indian folk music.
A few weeks before the song’s release, seated across from me on a plush sofa at the St. Regis in Mumbai, Mame Khan beams with giddy excitement as he reflects on this new collaboration that fuses sufi music with the pulse of hip-hop. “Rap music is not new. In fact, it’s very old: in English we call it rap, but in Hindi it’s what we call chhand,” he hypothesises, referring to the structured poetic meters traditionally used in epic poetry, bhajans, and folk music.
Mame Khan likes to excavate meaning from fragments most have left behind, brushing the dust off centuries-old traditions to give them a shiny new sparkle. Grinning from ear to ear, he speaks in a manner that’s instantly disarming, often cracking jokes or breaking into shaiyari. “Sangeet ek na khatam hone wali khoj hai (music is an endless search),” he says. “Aadmi khatam ho jayega, generations khatam ho jayengi, lekin sangeet khatam kabhi nahi hogi (People will disappear, generations will pass, but music will never end).”
Perhaps best known for the viral fame he accrued from performing his song “Chaudhary” with Amit Trivedi on Coke Studio India in 2011 and the hit song “Baawre” with Shankar Ehsan Loy in the film Luck By Chance, Mame Khan has long been at the forefront of taking Indian folk music beyond borders. He also collaborated with Shankar Mahadevan on the folk-focused initiative My Country, My Music, and took center stage as the lead vocalist in Roysten Abel’s celebrated production Manganiyar Seduction, which has been captivating international audiences since 2006. In 2022, he became the first Indian folk musician to walk the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival and perform at the Indian Pavilion, marking a historic moment for the genre on the global stage. He also helms The Folk Orchestra of Rajasthan, a project close to his heart that brings together more than 50 folk musicians in a larger-than-life symphonic celebration.
But his journey from the deserts of Jaisalmer to international recognition remains deeply rooted in his origins. Never seen without his traditional Rajasthani pagdi (which he even wore on the Cannes red carpet), he hails from the Manganiyar community of musicians in Jaisalmer’s Satto village. “In the gharana I was born in, there’s music all around,” he points out. “My mother would sing while making food, my sister would sing while doing the dusting, and the first sound I heard in the day at 5 AM was my father doing his Riyaz.” Though he started his career as a dholak player, he honed his vocal skills by closely, keenly observing other musicians who visited his father, folk singer Ustad Rana Khan. He would eventually begin training under his father, becoming his most disciplined pupil. In fact, he traces the inspiration of his new song back to a lesson his father instilled in him many years ago. “My [father] used to say that learning is an unquenchable hunger, an inner child that doesn’t grow up,” he explains, capturing the motto that has moulded him into an eternal experimentalist and lifelong student.
Khan is now determined to take Indian folk music to heights it hasn’t climbed before, joining forces with Warner Music India and JetSynthesys’ Global Music Junction to help him scale new audiences, platforms, and possibilities. “Folk music is from people, for people—there is so much joy, celebration, happiness and dance in it,” he explains. “The vibe is there, but it also matters how you use that vibe to appeal to the youth. That’s what I’m trying to do with this partnership.”
At a particularly exciting time for India in the global music industry, Khan acknowledges the importance of moving with the times and finding ways to add a modern twist to sounds of the soil. He underscores this mission with his 2018 track “Lal Peeli Ankhiyan,” which infuses the saxophone into a soundscape of traditional Rajasthani folk instruments like the khartaal, sarangi, and dholak. “I wanted to give it an international tadka, so I added saxophone elements inspired by flamenco,” he says, drawing a parallel between the Spanish folk tradition and his own Rajasthani sound. “To me, flamenco, [which is a Romani and Andalusian music tradition], feels like it’s rooted in Rajasthan. It’s my way of offering a modern twist that feels grounded in tradition.”
Khan isn’t afraid to venture into new sonic territories, but never at the cost of his cultural core. “I always say: fusion karo, confusion nahi,” he jokes. So, how does he balance that tension between tradition and experimentation? By making sure he brings a piece of Rajasthan into everything he does. “I always follow the rhythm of the Rajasthani ghoomar and use instruments like the sarangi. Even these small elements can help make a song larger than life and do justice to the music.” He also emphasises the importance of showmanship and visual storytelling in helping a song transcend language barriers. “We don’t just play music, we perform music,” he says. “We make it visual with the haav bhaav we give the song—the attire, the expressions, the tone of the khartaal, the sur of the sarangi. That’s what makes it a universal language.”
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