A conversation with Saif Hayat and Ashu Ali is akin to diving into India’s cultural history.
The musician-cousins, who call themselves The Shams Duo, come from a 800-year-old tradition of Qawwals, or performers, from the Sikandrabad Gharana (a branch of the historic Qawwal Baccha tradition) of Northern India, which traces its lineage to the famous Urdu poet Amir Khusrau. They grew up in Delhi in the climate of fine music, poetry and literature.
The young artistes opened the Noor Festival of Lights at Al Seef Dubai 2026, (an annual event by Dubai Tourism and Teamworks), where they were electrifying, fearless and charismatic. They mesmerised audiences with their own compositions as well as covers from various popular Bollywood Sufi songs.
They’re a year apart. Saif is 22 years old while Ashu is 23; their grandfathers are brothers, so they’re second cousins. Did the brothers naturally take to music? “Yes, I did instantly,” Saif tells Khaleej Times, while Ashu wanted to try his hand at acting. But both of them started training from the ages of three and four in Indian classical music. “Music is part of our household. It is like our climate, so no escaping that,” says Ashu.
Saif learnt under his grandfather Ustad Hayat Nizami, classical singer and sufi poet and Ashu under his grandfather Ustad Nizar Fakri Ahmad. “We are from the classical music and qawwal tradition. We used to sing at family concerts, never outside but then we started putting out content on Instagram when we were in our late teens.”
The cousins didn’t take social media seriously, but since they were talented and trained, they gained followers and reach almost instantly.
Understanding the pulse of times
Saif started professionally singing for Instagram in 2024 as a content creator making cover songs of Bollywood while Ashu dabbled in comedic content on Tiktok. “I then decided to join Saif bhai and moved my sights to music,” Ashu says.
These Gen-Z artists understood the pulse of the times and created their content accordingly. “We come from legacy but we have to appeal to today’s listener. They’re not used to 5-minute-long songs so the content had to be shorter and sharper,” Saif says. So, the boys used the classical music background and the qawwali tradition and updated themselves to all genres of music—techno, rap and more.
“Our generation listens to all kinds of musical genres and we need to appeal to them. Our advantage is our age, we belong to the Gen-Z generation and trained under the ustaads from our family,” Ashu says. The duo practices classical music 5-6 hours every few days. ‘Repetition is the key to riyaaz (practice),” he adds.
The duo write and compose together. “Back in 2025, we put out the original song Bawra that was written in Brij Bhasha and set to semi-classical music, while the other song Nayan had a techno-classical mix and both got popular despite being from relatively unknown singers and composers.” Soon, their Instagram and YouTube channel got several views. “We then made our own versions of popular songs—Tera mera pyaar, Bado Badi and more and that got a lot of views and likes.”
Collab with Bollywood
And one day, the inevitable happened. “We saw a comment in our DM from Honey Singh (the rapper), saying ‘Hi Bros…’ First we thought it was a fan page then we wrote back asking if it was the real Honey Singh. A few phone calls later we were in his studio.”
“Our legs were shaking when he asked us to collaborate with him on one of his songs. He knew our family and was very warm to us. That is how Bonita came about and we shot to fame, thanks to him,” adds Saif.
They then performed at IIFA (International Indian Film Academy Awards) 2024 in Abu Dhabi with a show-stopping performance with electrifying energy and then the HT City Vibes concert in India in front of 20,000 people sharing the event with B Praak, MC Square and Nooran sisters.
The boys continue to practice and up their game learning more genres of music. But still listen to their favourite Bollywood singers. “Kishore Kumar saab is our favourite and then Sonu Nigam ji, Arijit Singh sir and Hariharan saab,” they say.
Since they dabble in writing the lyrics of their songs, what is something that they refuse to do? “Our elders were very particular about decent lyrics and what they wrote. We have had poets and shayars in the family, so nothing vulgar will be written for sure. Also we haven’t experienced life to write about all topics. But sometime we need to use imagination when we dont have that experience,” says Saif
The boys played the unreleased Kanmani for us. “It has Tamil and Bengali lyrics. We are open to collaborations,” adds Ashu.
Ask them if music can be taught or is it a blessing and they say they’re blessed. “One has to be blessed with music. But we have to value and build on that blessing and shouldn’t take that for granted. Usko tarashna zaroori hai (you need to hone that gift).”
Their favorite music composers are Ajay-Atul and they list their favourite songs including Zingat from Sairat, Mere Naam Tu, from Zero, Shah ka rutba and Devashri Ganesha from Agneepath, Manzoor e Khuda, from Thugs of Hindoostan. They’re also RD Burman fans. “All his songs had a genius about them. He made music so ahead of his time, things people are only discovering today in music.”
A wishlist
Their wish list includes meeting Sonu Nigam, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. But for Bollywood stars, they have separate lists. While Saif wants to meet Aishwarya Rai and SRK, Ashu is keen on seeing Ranveer Singh, Priyanka Chopra, Kay Kay Menon and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
Big campaigners for listening to good music, they add, “Our elders taught us that before you become Tansen (an eminent court singer from Emperor Akbar the Great’s court), you have to be Kansen (a master of listening to music). We listen to music voraciously. There are so many kinds and streams in music and we still dont know the unlimited possibilities we can dabble in. Sky’s the limit.”
Source: Khaleej Times