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There were a lot of very recognisable names on Spotify’s Top 50 - Global chart on Wednesday. Olivia Rodrigo was at number six, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj were at number 15, Harry Styles was at 28 and Michael Jackson was at 34.

A few steps down, however, at number 39, just under ‘One Of The Girls’ by The Weeknd and Jennie, there were three names that may not be super familiar to foreign listeners but are well known in Pakistan: Zain Ali, Zohaib Ali and Hamza Malik, whose song ‘Alfaaz’ is making waves across the world.

The Urdu-Punjabi song, which can perhaps be described as a soundtrack for the disastrously smitten, has been climbing charts left and right, reaching the top spot on the Top 50 chart for both India and Pakistan.

This streak continues from a very successful week for the song, which reached second place on the UK’s Indian-dominated Official Asian Music Chart — in fact, ‘Alfaaz’ dethroned MXRCI and Karan Aujla’s ‘Straight Up’.

Giraffe, the studio behind the song, said its success was “unprecedented” for a Pakistani song and called it an “example of how far a song can travel when it finds its audience”.

For the studio, co-founded by production maverick Zulfiqar J Khan — Xulfi — this is their second chart topper after Sheheryar Rehan and Zoha Waseem’s ‘Majboor’ last year, which also topped Spotify’s Pakistan chart and peaked at second place on the India chart.

The studio said both songs were “different stories, shaped by different artists and trajectories, but together they reflect the possibilities that emerge when compelling music meets the right audience and continues to find new ones”.