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Hasan Raheem shook fans in Toronto on May 10 when Indian singer Talwiinder joined him on stage to perform their song ‘Wishes’ live for the first time ever. Speaking about the day, Raheem told BBC Asian Network’s Haroon Rashid he “couldn’t stop hugging” his “brother”.

The Pakistani pop sensation said, “At the end, music and art will win.”

Raheem said the pair had collaborated on three songs and he loved how Talwiinder was unapologetic about being a misfit. He said they had tried to keep the joint performance “low-key”, but any notion of that went out the window when the Indian artist stepped on stage and “the voices started shrieking”.

He said they performed the song once, then twice at the crowd’s insistence. When they asked the duo to sing a third time, Raheem said he didn’t want to annoy his guest, but Talwiinder insisted they should.

When Rashid asked the singer if he knew the impact his collaboration had, he said he absolutely did. “I feel like art is supposed to be borderless,” he added.

“If I like his songs, if I like the way he talks, if I like his energy, I’m going to just hit a message up and I’ll be like, you want to do a song together? It’s as simple as that. But if you want to make it more complicated, you can also do that.”

Raheem said he was happy to share the stage at his concerts because he remembered seeing concerts as a kid where an artist makes a surprise appearance and “everyone would lose their minds”.

He said his parents had taught him all moments in life were temporary and that he should share them with friends.

While Raheem speaks so positively about his friend from across the border and his fanbase in Pakistan fully supports their onstage bromance, Talwiinder faced strong backlash in India for the performance.

Despite the opposition, Talwiinder has a number of collaborations with Pakistani artists, including the song ‘Sachay Loki’ with Meesha Shafi and the viral hit ‘Pal Pal’ with Afusic and Ali Soomro.