Karan Aujla Wins TikTok Juno Fan Choice Award
The Punjabi artist also performed his hit songs “Admirin’ You” and “Softly” with Ikky at the event held in Halifax
Karan Aujla. Photo: Amrit Thind
Punjabi-Canadian artist Karan Aujla took home his first Juno Award in the TikTok Fan Choice category on March 24th.
Although he was also nominated for Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Aujla won the TikTok Fan Choice award, with nominees including everyone from The Weeknd to Tate McRae to fellow Punjabi artist Shubh.
Aujla got on stage to thank his collaborators like Ikky as well as Deep Rehaan. He said in his acceptance speech, “Oh my god. This is definitely a first one, but not the last. I just wanna start off by saying thank you Junos, thank you to my team, everybody sitting down there. […] I just wanna thank my parents, thank god. Waheguru da shukar hai. I wanna thank my wife, my brothers […] Sometimes I can’t believe I’m that same kid that lost his parents when I was in India, made my way out to Canada, this beautiful country.”
“If you are dreaming, just make sure you dream big,” Aujla said as he signed off.
The Juno Fan Choice Award has previously been dominated by the likes of Avril Lavigne, Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes and more and this marks the first time a Punjabi hip-hop artist has won a Juno.
In the past, several Indian-origin artists have been nominated at the Junos — Patna-born, New Delhi-bred Toronto singer-songwriter Kiran Ahluwalia most notably won World Music Album of the Year twice at the Juno Awards, in 2004 and 2012.
Breakthrough Punjabi nominees have included rapper NAV, who was nominated for Breakthrough Artist of the Year in 2018, plus Fan Choice and Rap Recording of the Year nominations in 2019 and 2020. Last year, AP Dhillon made history by becoming the first Punjabi artist to perform at the awards.
This year, Aujla took over with his go-to collaborator Ikky at the Juno Awards 2024, performing a medley of songs like “Admirin’ You” and “Softly.” It made for a vibrant display of Desi music at one of Canadian music’s long-running, acclaimed events.
For Aujla, the win comes on the back of releasing several hits, plus being in India to mark the launch of his collaborative album with Mumbai rap star DIVINE, Street Dreams. Earlier this month, Aujla featured on Badshah‘s collab-heavy new album Ek Tha Raja, lending his voice to the buoyant opening track “God Damn.”
