Kashmir wins Pepsi Battle of the Bands!

Pepsi Battle of the Bands wrapped up with a grand finale today, and band Kashmir emerged as the winner.

This leaves Badnaam as the runners-up of the televised music competition.

Kashmir made a gutsy move in their audition with their cover of Fawad's [as in his band eP's] 'Hamesha'. Luckily, they pulled it off, going on to rack up a fan following by their hauntingly beautiful cover of Aamir Zaki's 'Mera Pyar' in episode 3. They continued to win fans over with their original songs like 'Buddha Baba' and 'Soch' in subsequent episodes. While their cover of eP's 'Waqt' let them down, a later cover they performed 'Menda Ishq Ve Toon' was a big crowd-pleaser. Kashmir earned the respect of the judges, with Atif saying early in episode 6 that he'd like to buy Kashmir's album.

Badnaam entered the competition after impressing judges with 'Alif Allah' in the auditions. They were strong contenders from the start, blowing away audiences with their cover of 'Kala Jora' in episode 3. Although their original track 'Khwaja Ki Deewani' got mixed reviews from the judges, they stuck to their qawwali rock signature and were favoured for their renditions of 'Bismillah Karan' and 'Sham-e-Qalandar'. In the last episode, Badnaam's mash-up forced judge Fawad Khan to admit that he'd love to see them perform all over the world.

Overall, both bands were quite consistent in their performances, making this final decision tough to bet on!

Here's wishing for fabulous musical careers for both Kashmir and Badnaam.

The winning band gets Rs5 million, a music album contract, concerts across Pakistan and lifetime royalties on their music.