Satinder Sartaaj

Satinder Pal Singh was born in the village of Bajrawar in Hoshiarpur, Punjab. He attended school at the government elementary school in his village. While in the third standard, he began performing in local Bal Sabhas.^{[4][better source needed]}

Sartaaj obtained an honours degree in music from Government College, Hoshiarpur. He concentrated on his musical career while completing his MPhil in Sufi music singing and later a PhD in Sufi singing (Gayan) from Panjab University, Chandigarh. He also taught music at Panjab University for six years. Sartaaj also completed a certificate course and Diploma in the Persian language.^[1] He started writing poetry and adopted his Takhallus (pen name), Sartaaj, while at college.

Sartaaj pursued a professional music career in his 20s. Before this, he has stated he was a farmer and had no interest in pursuing a career as a performer.

His big performance break was in 2008 when he got booked for a gig in Toronto, Ontario. The show's organisers had heard him singing on YouTube and wanted him to perform for the Punjabi-Canadian audience.^[5]

In 2011, Sartaaj won "Best International Act" at the Brit Asia TV Music Awards (BAMA).^[6]

On 2 May 2014, Sartaaj performed in the Royal Albert Hall.^[7] He won "Best Songwriter" again at BAMA 2017 and "Music Video of the Year" at BAMA 2018 for "Udaarian".^[8][9]

He debuted in the American film industry with the lead role in the movie The Black Prince, a historic biopic of Maharaja Duleep Singh which was released on 21 July 2017.^[10] He has also acted in Punjabi films including Ikko Mikke (2020) and Kali Jotta (2023).^[11]

Although he has taught at the university and is an accomplished bhangra performer, composer and singer, Sartaaj considers shayari (poetry) as his first love.^[12]