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The Story Behind Runaway
Coke Studio Season 11's "Runaway" brought Pakistani-American EDM duo Krewella together with folk singers Riaz Qadri and Ghulam Ali Qadri for the show's second episode in August 2018. Krewella arrived with a finished dance track and sent its stems to season producers Zohaib Kazi and Ali Hamza, who largely rebuilt the arrangement around the collaboration. The result threads the English pop refrain through Punjabi verses about separation, letting two musical ideas meet without disguising their differences. A driving dholak pattern from Babar Khanna and Gul Mohammad's sarangi supply the acoustic pull beneath the electronic pulse. For Jahan and Yasmine Yousaf, the performance also marked a Coke Studio debut and a public reconnection with their Pakistani roots, while the Qadri voices turn an invitation to escape into a dialogue between restless motion and longing.
Meaning & Translation
"Runaway" uses escape as a romantic promise: leave the noise behind, drive into the night, and become shelter for someone who needs room to breathe. The Coke Studio arrangement deepens that straightforward English invitation with Punjabi poetry of hijr, the ache of separation from a beloved. The Qadri passages ask the dark-complexioned beloved not to remain angry after a long absence, then invoke Sassi, the legendary lover worn down by searching. Those older images complicate the title. Running away is no longer only youthful freedom; it is also the urgent wish to close a distance that has already caused suffering. Electronic momentum pushes forward while the folk verses keep returning to patience, grievance, and reunion.
Details
- Artist
- Krewella, Riaz Qadri, Ghulam Ali Qadri
- Category
- Coke Studio
- Collection
- Coke Studio Season 11
- Released
- 2018
- Mood
- Romantic, Melancholy
- YouTube Views
- 5.58M
Artists & Credits
- Krewella singer
- Riaz Qadri singer
- Ghulam Ali Qadri singer
- Ed (Diskord) composer
- Logan (Diskord) composer
- Cody Tarpley composer
- Jahan Yousaf composer
- Yasmine Yousaf composer
- Dan Henig composer
- Riaz Qadri composer
- Ed (Diskord) lyricist
- Logan (Diskord) lyricist
- Cody Tarpley lyricist
- Jahan Yousaf lyricist
- Yasmine Yousaf lyricist
- Dan Henig lyricist
- Ghulam Fareed lyricist
- Khwaja Mohammad Yaar lyricist
- Babar Khanna musician
- Gul Mohammad musician
- Zohaib Kazi producer
- Ali Hamza producer