Meet Jasman Sidhu & Ashman Sidhu: The Rising Bhangra Stars from Melbourne

Meet Jasman Sidhu & Ashman Sidhu: The Rising Bhangra Stars from Melbourne Jasman Kaur Sidhu and Ashman Singh Sidhu have performed with celebrated artists such as Satinder Sartaaj, Arif Lohar, Ninja, Ranjit Bawa, Tarsem Jassar, and most recently, the one and only Diljit Dosanjh. These talented siblings began their Bhangra journey at the ages of 6 and 8, creating their own choreography and sharing their passion through social media channels, with support from their parents and coaching from their coach, Gursher Singh Heer. Their energetic performances have gained them a loyal following on Instagram and YouTube for their cultural videos. Ashman’s big moment came during Diljit Dosanjh’s Born to Shine tour in Melbourne, where he performed on stage at Rod Laver Arena, impressing both the artist and the massive crowd. The duo’s performances have also included collaborations with Karan Aujla, Kanwar Grewal, and many others. Beyond performing, Jasman and Ashman are giving back to the community by offering free Bhangra workshops during school holidays. They have also held fundraisers for Cancer Council Victoria and have conducted workshops for cancer and autism awareness. Recently, Ashman made history as the first young Punjabi turbaned model signed by Tanya Powell Modeling Agency in Melbourne. He also dedicated his debut song Bhain to his sister, with both siblings being featured in the music video. Indus Age caught up with these inspiring young stars for an exclusive chat.

Read on for their journey and achievements!

By Nidhi Kumari

Can you tell us how your journey with Bhangra began and what inspired you to start at such a young age?

Growing up, we were very shy and introverted so when our parents came to know about bhangra classes, they decided to give it a go so that we would gain confidence and open up a bit. After our first lesson, Jasman was confident in what she learnt but Ashman was struggling and didn’t want to go back. Our whole family supported him and Jasman helped him understand the steps. Getting to where we are right now took a lot of time, practise, and efforts.

How did you come up with the idea of starting a YouTube channel and social media pages? What role did your parents play in supporting this?
It was actually our parents’ idea to start a YouTube channel and share our talent with the rest of the world. People around us really supported us and encouraged us to continue making videos so our mum made social media pages for us where we continue to regularly upload videos.

What does the process of choreographing your Bhangra videos look like? How do you come up with new ideas and moves?

Usually, it can be a bit tough to find songs that are appropriate for siblings to make a together to make the choreography. Although we both have different ideas on what steps to use, we end up mixing both our ideas resulting in unique choreographies.

Ashman, how did you feel when you got the chance to perform with Diljit Dosanjh at the Rod Laver Arena? Can you share your most memorable moment from that performance?

When I was dressed like him and had front row seats, we had a feeling that something would happen. When I got picked up by his team member and went on the stage I first could not believe that this was happening but then I was so hyped and was ready to rock the stage. The most memorable moment of the performance was definitely when I hugged Diljit Dosanjh. I was so happy because I was gifted a shirt, vest and gloves worn by Diljit Dosanjh. In front of such a large audience, this moment boosted my confidence and it payed-off all the hard work I had been doing. You have performed with so many famous artists like Karan Aujla, Satinder Sartaj, and Ninja.

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How do you prepare for such big events, and which performance has been your favourite? Out of the various artists we have performed with, it is impossible to pick a favourite.

Every different stage and artist comes with a unique experience from with we learnt new things. There are many preparations that we make in order to perform on big stages. We pick out outfits, go through many rehearsals and get to the venue beforehand to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Ashman, your debut song Bhain was such a beautiful Raksha Bandhan tribute to your sister.
How did the idea for this song come about, and how was the experience of being featured in the video together?

The idea of my first song came into our heads when Raksha Bandhan was coming close. I started music classes about 6 months before my song. With this celebration coming up my family thought to dedicate it to my sister because Raksha Bandhan is all about siblings. Knowing that my sister is in the video with me I got really happy and was less nervous. Now that I have released 3 songs I want to continue in this line and make sure that the people from Melbourne and especially the Punjabi community will be proud of me.

How has modelling with Tanya Powell Modelling Agency added a new dimension to your journey? What do you enjoy most about modelling?

After finishing the modelling course with Tanya Powell modelling agency at the age of just twelve years old, I gained a lot of confidence. I am really proud that I was the youngest student in my class there and I represented my culture being the only one with a turban. Throughout the course with classes teaching me a lot of new things, my favourite lessons have got to be the catwalk ones because in those, I got to collaborate with my peers and learn a lot of new things.

What advice would you give to other kids who want to pursue their passions, whether it’s Bhangra, singing, or anything else?

All we want to say to people who have dreams of doing something big is that don’t let anything get in your way. Stay patient and consistent, it took us seven years to get to where we are today. Our message to all those kids who want to be
something or achieve something is that sometimes you will have to compromise something to get something else. For an example, we had to compromise other extracurricular activities in order to focus on Bhangra.

If there is anything we learnt throughout our bhangra journey, it is that anything is possible if you work hard.

What inspired you to start the free Bhangra workshops for kids during school holidays? How do you connect this with cancer awareness?

After years of sharing our talent on stages and online, we wanted to help other people connect with their culture and learn to do bhangra so our parents organised a free bhangra workshop in the school holidays. After the immense amount of support we got, we started organising them every school holidays in different locations. We have always wanted to do something for the community so we decided to add cancer awareness sessions in order to fundraise for the Cancer Council.

What are your dreams for the future? Are there any new projects or goals that you are working towards right now?

We would love to continue to represent our culture worldwide and share our talent with the rest of the world. As we grow up, we would like to do even bigger things such as have our own dance school. Along with that, Ashman would like to continue on his journey of becoming a big artist by releasing more songs and becoming a part of more movies. In 2025, we will continue to host free bhangra workshops as well as awareness sessions for different issues in the community.