A Pakistani song has cracked Spotify’s Top 50 Global chart, sharing space with some of the biggest names in music.
‘Alfaaz’ by Zain Ali, Zohaib Ali and Hamza Malik landed at number 39 on Wednesday, just below ‘One Of The Girls’ by The Weeknd and Jennie. The chart that day also featured Olivia Rodrigo at number six, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj at 15, Harry Styles at 28 and Michael Jackson at 34.
The Urdu-Punjabi track has been climbing charts steadily. It has reached the top spot on Spotify’s Top 50 chart in both India and Pakistan.
The run follows a strong week for the song, which reached second place on the UK’s Official Asian Music Chart, dominated by Indian acts. In the process, ‘Alfaaz’ dethroned MXRCI and Karan Aujla’s ‘Straight Up’.
Giraffe, the studio behind the song, called its success “unprecedented” for a Pakistani song and an “example of how far a song can travel when it finds its audience”.
For the studio, co-founded by producer Zulfiqar J Khan, popularly known as Xulfi, this is the second chart-topping hit. Last year, Sheheryar Rehan and Zoha Waseem’s ‘Majboor’ also topped Spotify’s Pakistan chart and peaked at second place on the India chart.
The studio said both songs were “different stories, shaped by different artists and trajectories”, but together reflected “the possibilities that emerge when compelling music meets the right audience and continues to find new ones.”
