Penn Masala performed at the Indian Olympic House last week in Paris. (Photo courtesy of Penn Masala)
Penn Masala, the internationally renowned and University’s first South Asian a cappella group, performed at the Indian Olympic House last week in Paris.
Penn Masala’s 13 performers, including recent graduates from the Class of 2024, performed two shows at the India House, Team India’s base for the 2024 Paris Olympics, on Aug. 3 and Aug. 4 to crowds of hundreds.
“It was incredible,” Penn Masala President and Wharton and Engineering rising senior Ajay Kilambi told The Daily Pennsylvanian in an interview.
“Super high energy … it was just also really cool traveling with your best friends to Paris, out of all places, and performing for huge crowds.”
Each performance lasted an hour, and included popular songs and original mashups that Masala has arranged since its inception, such as “classics” like “She Will Be Loved / O Re Piya” and newer songs off their most recent album like “Zara Zara x Love Nwantiti.”
The India House reached out to Penn Masala directly to ask them to perform. Penn Masala’s leadership team acknowledged the challenges of practicing remotely before the show.
“With a capella you can’t really practice over zoom,” Penn Masala Music Director and College rising senior Raghunandan Raman told the DP, “so we kind of had to go the safe route of performing songs that do well here at Penn that we sound good on.”
Despite the challenges, group members told the DP they persevered and delivered a great night of a cappella for the crowds. Notable guests such as the leadership of the bronze-medaling Indian men’s field hockey team attended, Wharton rising junior and Penn Masala business manager Gaurish Gaur told the DP.
Penn Masala was founded by students at Penn in 1996 and hailed as “the world’s first South Asian a capella group,” creating a unique fusion between South Asian and Western music.
Through the years, members of Penn Masala have performed for crowds and leaders across the globe, including twice at the White House, once in 2009 via invitation of then-president Barack Obama, and again in 2023 via invitation from President Joe Biden. They regularly tour at universities and events in the United States and India, and have toured in the United Kingdom and Canada. The group also had a cameo role in the musical comedy “Pitch Perfect 2.”
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