Pepsi Battle of the Bands returned to screens after a fifteen year hiatus in 2017 to reclaim the brand’s musical heritage.
The promo featuring the judges in large-scale production with two iconic pop numbers in a mash-up quickly went viral and ignited interest in the upcoming content.
In the show Farooq Ahmed, frontman of season one winner Aaroh returned to judge the audition round and the band reunited to perform their biggest hit once more. Fawad Khan of season one runner up EP, now Pakistan’s biggest movie star returned as a judge, joined by Meesha Shafi and Atif Aslam. Joining them was Shahi Hassan one of the founding members of Pakistan’s biggest band to date, Vital Signs.
The response was phenomenal. New stars were made and the resulting playlist of performed numbers were varied and diverse in genres – from sufi rock to rock, pop, and EDM. In an industry saturated by covers and folk/traditional fusion, Pepsi Battle of the Bands injected some much needed original music into the nation’s playlists. And new bands into the concert arena.
Apart from a cash prize, an album deal and concert tour, the brand also relinquished royalties for all the songs performed to the bands themselves, giving the bands an opportunity to grow.
Ground lost to rival Coca Cola in the music territory is now quickly being regained. And once again Pepsi is the brand known for creating music starts, great musical collaborations and giving back to the music industry.
