The Masala Hits

Penn Masala performs during the State Dinner for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2023 at the White House. (Official White House Photo by Erin Scott)

In June 2023, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington. D.C., the prime minister, President Joe Biden, and hundreds of other guests enjoyed a special treat at the White House: virtuosic, genre-blending music from the a cappella singing group Penn Masala. The 19 young singers, who delivered the performance live, are students or alumni of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn, for short).

The a cappella group

Penn Masala describes itself as “the world’s first South Asian a cappella group…born with the desire to create music that traversed traditional cultural boundaries and captured the experience of growing up with both eastern and western cultures.” The band’s musical arrangements regularly combine Bollywood hits and Western pop music, lyrics in Hindi and English—all woven into a tapestry of sounds and textures.

The group’s multicultural brilliance was on full display at the White House. Their performances included A.R. Rahman’s “Chhaiya Chhaiya,” with Masala singers creating harmonies, percussion and bass lines using only their voices.

The big invitation

While at the White House, the band performed twice—during a morning arrival ceremony and at the official state dinner in honor of Prime Minister Modi. Raghu Raman, a math student at Penn and president of the group, says the invitation to perform came after an earlier visit by Penn Masala to Washington, D.C. “As people may remember, we performed at the White House in 2009 for the Diwali celebration for the Obama Administration,” he says.

Once the invitation arrived, it was largely up to the group’s music director Prateek Adurty, a student of biology and management at Penn, to lead the preparation. “It was extremely intense,” he says, “as it was sudden news that interrupted all of our summer breaks.”

Adurty says the group members had to abandon their internships, research and obligations to get back into the rhythm of singing together. “This meant practicing virtually or having people send in recordings, showing that they remembered all of our performances and songs from our India tour, even just a month ago.”

“We would just like to mention how much of an honor it is to perform for everybody at the White House!” adds Adurty. “It was truly an opportunity of a lifetime and memories none of the team will forget.”

The masala makers

The all-male group was formed in 1996 as the world’s first Hindi a cappella group. Currently, besides Raghu Raman and Prateek Adurty, the group comprises 11 other Penn students.

Gaurish Gaur, a finance and statistics student at the university’s Wharton School of Business, serves as Penn Masala’s business manager. He became involved in the group “to develop a sense of larger community with the brown community,” he says. “I knew of Masala before I was accepted into Penn and knew I wanted to be a part of it in any way possible.”

“It was genuinely incredible to perform for such an audience,” Gaur continues, describing the White House visit. “Knowing that we were representing South Asian identity in Western fusion music, all of us were incredibly proud and humbled to represent the United States on behalf of President Joe Biden—especially since many of us had family in the audience, some of whom had never seen us perform before.”

Since 1996, the group has released a dozen full-length albums and performed in six cities across India. Its music has been included in the Hollywood movie, “Pitch Perfect 2.”

For the band, all of that’s just the beginning. “A lot of new stuff is coming down the pipeline,” says Raman, “including more collabs, reels, music videos, original songs and merchandise. After an exhausting India tour and White House performance, the team is still working hard on making sure that content is coming out of the production pipeline.”

“We’re hoping to collaborate even more with other prominent South Asian musical and influencer figures,” Raman continues, “and we always love to read the fans’ comments, so please continue to encourage and support us!”

Michael Gallant is a New York City-based writer, musician and entrepreneur.

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