Coke Studio 2020 is finally here; 1st episode set to air on Friday

Coke Studio Pakistan on Wednesday released song promos for the first episode of its latest season, which is set to air on Friday. Prior to this, it also released the line-up of all the artists who will be performing in the 13th season of the highly recognized music platform.

On November 28, Coke Studio, in a tweet, shared a picture of all the artists and announced the release date of the first song. It wrote, “The artist line-up Coke Studio 2020. Stay tuned for the first song dropping Friday 4th December 2020! #CokeStudio2020”

Because of the damage inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic, the famous and much loved music programme was almost called-off by its sponsor Coca Cola. However, it was the efforts of Rohail Hyatt, the founder and current producer of Coke Studio, which gave life to this years’ show.

 “When the world has come to a standstill and there is no business activity it makes perfect sense for a brand to hold back on the marketing,” Rohail Hyatt told Pakistan’s The Express Tribune.

“You were no longer doing Coke Studio as a marketing commitment, you were doing it as your commitment to giving music out for free. Then the brand asked me whether I’ll be able to do it and I replied ‘we will do it’ because the message here is to adapt and change both as a brand and as species. Don’t stop, evolve,” he told the newspaper.

Due to the budget cut and other logistic difficulties, the show has been cut short this time with only 12 songs to be released in the span of one and a half months. Owing to this, the show will be called ‘Coke Studio 2020’ and not Coke Studio season 13.

The show will feature all original songs and an all-female anthem ‘Na Tutteya Ve’ featuring Meesha Shafi, Fariha Pervez, Sehar Gul Khan, Sanam Marvi, Wajiha Naqvi and Zara Madani. The song speaks about the resilience of women.

The artist line-up includes Meesha Shafi, who is returning to Coke Studio after 10 years.

“I am delighted to announce that #RohailHyatt and I have reunited after a decade of #Jugni #ChoriChori #DhashteTanhai and #IshqAapBhiAwalla….. on the same platform that changed my life and the face of Pakistani music across the globe, forever,” she wrote on her Instagram.

Here’s the entire line-up:

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Sanam Marvi
Meesha Shafi
Ali Noor
Bohemia  
Aizaz
Mehdi Maloof
Umair Jaswal
Wajeeha Naqvi
Zara Madni
Saher Gul Khan
Nawazish
Ali Pervaiz Mehdi
Fariha Pervaiz
Shehroze Hussain