{"id":2219447,"date":"2026-01-02T03:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T03:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2219447"},"modified":"2026-01-02T03:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T03:47:11","slug":"zohran-mamdanis-new-york-inauguration-ends-with-punjabi-music-viral-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/zohran-mamdanis-new-york-inauguration-ends-with-punjabi-music-viral-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani\u2019s New York inauguration ends with Punjabi music. Viral video"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Zohran Mamdani\u2019s inauguration ceremony on January 1 ended with a performance from Punjabi artist Babbulicious. Mamdani, 34, was sworn in as the first Muslim mayor of New York City on Thursday.<\/p>\n

<\/picture> <\/span>
Punjabi singer Babbulicious performing at Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration ceremony in New York<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Born to an Indian mother and a Ugandan father of Indian origin, Mamdani frequently appealed to the desi diaspora during his campaign \u2014 including filming a video in Hindi and having Dhoom Machale play during his victory speech.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Also read: Zohran Mamdani walks off to \u2018Dhoom Machale\u2019 after winning NYC mayoral race. Watch<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The Punjabi performance was the latest in a series of nods to his South Asian roots.<\/p>\n

Punjabi music at Mamdani\u2019s inauguration<\/h2>\n

The musical lineup at Zohran Mamdani\u2019s inauguration included welcome music from dj mOma, Grammy-winning singer Lucy Dacus performing \u201cBread and Roses\u201d, Mandy Patinkin and PS22 Chorus of Staten Island performing \u201cSomewhere Over the Rainbow\u201d, and Babbulicious right at the end.<\/span><\/p>\n

Babbulicious, a Toronto-based artist, performed the Punjabi song \u201cGaddi Red Challenger\u201d at the inauguration. Mamdani was seen grooving to the song along with wife Rama Duwaji and hundreds of New Yorkers who turned up for his inauguration.<\/p>\n

However, a section of the internet objected to Punjabi music playing at the inauguration ceremony for the mayor of New York.<\/p>\n

As footage of Babbulicious\u2019s performance went viral, it also drew hate comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cZohran Mamdani\u2019s inauguration in New York City has music that\u2019s not even in English and Muslim men on stage that look like they\u2019re in Afghanistan.<\/span> Buckle up America. This is the Islamic takeover of America,\u201d read one post on the social media platform X.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre NYers really going to put up with this? I am guessing we will see major backlash soon,\u201d Republican Josh Barnett predicted.<\/p>\n

Several people, however, also pointed out that the singer is a Sikh, not Muslim.<\/p>\n

\u201cI oppose Mamdani. But the guy is a Sikh singing a Punjabi song,\u201d read one comment. \u201cFirst of, you just want to spread hate which is why you didn’t do your homework and just trying to make people panic. Second, this is a Punjabi song and this guy is Sikh,\u201d another said.<\/p>\n

(Also read: New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani promises to tax the rich in inaugural speech<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.hindustantimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zohran Mamdani\u2019s inauguration ceremony on January 1 ended with a performance from Punjabi artist Babbulicious. Mamdani, 34, was sworn in as the first Muslim mayor of New York City on Thursday. Punjabi singer Babbulicious performing at Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration ceremony in New York Born to an Indian mother and a Ugandan father of Indian origin, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2219448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[429251,406912,395371,429252,369632],"class_list":["post-2219447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-babbulicious-performance","tag-new-york-city-mayor","tag-punjabi-music","tag-sikh-singer","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Zohran-Mamdanis-New-York-inauguration-ends-with-Punjabi-music-Viral.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2219447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2219449,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219447\/revisions\/2219449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2219448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2219447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2219447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2219447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}