As an artist who learned his craft during the era of CDs and massive music shops, Bilal Saeed says he struggled to understand what he calls the “digital revolution”—the advent of streaming, distribution platforms and, most notably, social media algorithms. But it looks—and sounds—like he’s got to grips with it now. The Pakistani singer-songwriter, producer and composer, who released his debut album Twelve in 2012, tells Apple Music: “We didn’t make music thinking someone would dance to it [on TikTok]. It was just intended as music for our listeners. When the strategies changed, I just felt like I didn’t want to fit in with something I didn’t feel.” All that has now indeed changed for the star. Saeed has readjusted his music-making processes to suit the ever-evolving industry. Put simply, an album wasn’t on his mind until he released the song “Baari” with fellow Pakistani singer Momina Mustehsan in 2019. “After ‘Baari’, I felt a different sense of freedom—as an artist, I can release music via my own label,” he says. “So I thought, ‘It’s been a decade, I should put out an album.’ I was thinking about it for a long time but then I made the decision.” Saeed sifted through more than 100 songs, whittling them down to a selection that became Superstar. The 12-track album—coincidentally, his first album in 12 years—features the Punjabi pop flavour that the singer-songwriter has long championed in Pakistan, but it also mines personal stories of heartbreak, friendship and resolve. “This time,” he says, “I was telling my own story instead of creating characters in my head.” Saeed brings star collaborators including Asim Azhar (“Cold Hearted”) and Talha Anjum (“Stay Away”) into the album’s fold as he continues the timeless sound of Twelve while also pushing boundaries with tabla-infused songs such as “Dil Pagal”. The artist dedicates the record to his fans, he says, because “they never gave up and they kept asking for it”. Below, Saeed takes Apple Music through Superstar, track by track. “Misunderstood” “When I was working on a note about the album for my fans, it took me back to when I wrote the note for my first album. I realised how simple and innocent we used to be! I wasn’t even fully aware of the dynamics I was getting into—I just wanted to make music and be appreciated for it and become famous. But then, with fame, there are always pros and cons, right? If you are doing this for a decade, imagine your routine before you were famous, like going grocery shopping with the missus—it’s a very normal life. “If I haven’t got to do that in more than a decade, can you imagine my social life [now]? If you ask me to go buy something for 10 rupees, I’ll probably buy things worth 100 rupees because I no longer understand how things used to be. ‘Misunderstood’ is about when you become famous. People don’t give you that margin of being human. [You’re] always expected to be perfect and inspirational. There are times when you feel low—and people don’t realise that they have their own image in their heads of a singer and they think that’s how it is. I wrote this because there were some controversies that arose around me that were false and, if I wasn’t famous, they wouldn’t have been raised. So the song is about me realising, ‘Okay, this is what I was jumping into.’” “BTDT (Been There Done That)” (feat. Talha Anjum) “When I made this song, I was in England and there’s a very ‘boys’ boys’ vibe—I have friends there and we cruise in the car and go to a hookah lounge, which I don’t do in Pakistan at all. When you look around inside you for the emotions that people think you still have [while hanging out with friends], you revisit your journey and realise that they don’t exist any more. I’m not that person any longer. I don’t grow my hair long any more, like I sang on ‘12 Saal’. The message in ‘Stay Away’ that the protagonist gives the girl is inspired by that ‘been there, done that’ idea and me talking to myself. I want to tell younger folks that you can go out there and have a bit of fun—but then keep in mind that it’s just a little part of your life. “I’m a big fan of Talha Anjum. The depth in his lyrics inspires me as a writer. I had done a song with Talhah Yunus [from the Young Stunners duo with Anjum] called ‘Deja Vu’. Originally, I had wanted both of them on the same song, but Talha Anjum didn’t fit much on that song, so I always felt that I had to work with him. I sent him this song and he wrote a verse. I really liked it and that’s how it came about.” “Cold Hearted” (feat. Asim Azhar) “In relationships, again, we’re all humans with fluctuating emotions. Sometimes, we put our life into things and then, at other times, we feel, ‘This is not for me.’ The spark that we are driven by at the start of a relationship and think will come back—it won’t come back. It’s gone and it’s all right. Emotions change and we just need to accept that and move on. “When you’re making a song, you sometimes gravitate towards the thought that this should be a collaboration. I thought to myself at some point that I should take a step back from collaborations, but I felt I couldn’t keep singing this song alone. There has to be some other voice that comes in and changes the dynamics. Asim was around and performing at a concert close to my house. I had played the same festival the day before. We were good friends, so I came to the festival and he called me on to the stage [to sing a song], and I felt the vibe. So when I sent him this song, I didn’t have to convince him. He heard it and said: ‘Let’s do it. I love this song.’ I was blown away because the way he’s done it is amazing.” “Still Waiting” (feat. Young Desi) “Young Desi and I, we go way back. He was doing desi underground rap already but we kind of brought him to the mainstream. I love promoting newer talent. When you look through your journey, you wish that [other] artists would get the kind of platform to achieve their dreams that you had—especially for the kind of aggression that he was sitting with. He’s very unique. I had a very slow sketch for this [song] when I first made it, maybe six or eight years ago. I thought something could be made of this, so I gave it an ’80s vibe. I called Young Desi and asked him to come over and chill. We were all in the studio and I played it. Young Desi started jamming to it and a verse came in. I wrote my second verse right then as well. We had pure fun making it.” “Superstar (Reloaded)” “When this song was first made, it was the faster version. When I heard it over and over, I felt like there was a depth to it that wasn’t hitting the same way. Maybe the audience would not be able to feel the same thing I was feeling through the song. I was sitting by the piano one day and I began playing the riffs and it changed my whole perspective about the song. I was like, ‘Okay, I need to put more emphasis on the storytelling instead of [creating] a song which is upbeat and all that.’ I’m saying that behind a superstar is a human being’s story. Your very own superstar. It changed the dynamics when I made this unplugged version.” “Dil Pagal” “I must have composed this three or four years ago, with a structure in mind. ‘Dil Pagal’ is just genuinely my love for the art. Nothing else. I just love the lyrics and the concept of the song. Lyrically, I think it’s insane if somebody understands the depth of it. I had a lot of fun making it. I think it’s just my tribute to my art and how much I enjoy making music. That’s what you can see in this song.” “Khasma Nu Kha” (feat. Aima Baig) “‘Khasma Nu Kha’ is one of those where I sing as a character. It’s still coming from something inside of me. I thought, ‘If this is a duet between Aima and Bilal, it has to be catchy.’ It has to be commercial. It has to be a story where the guy is telling his story and the girl is telling her story. There’s some toxicity that runs in between them when you get into it. Musically, since everyone does trap and hip-hop, I wanted to do that but also something from the times when [pop artist] Raghav created hits [like ‘Angel Eyes’], so you’ll hear a bit of that. I wanted that in the flute and other elements.” “The Umbrella Song” “I always wanted to revive folk music, in a way. If you hear [my 2016 song] ‘Paranday’, it was an old folk song that I made into a whole new song, changing the composition as well. It connected with people. You get an advantage when you add folk elements to a song. In this song, the folk element inspired me to write. It also visually inspired me [to make] the music video about the concept of beauty and how it’s stereotyped. Battles for [societal] inclusivity have been fought in other places of the world and [they will] come later to our regions [in Pakistan]. Of course, they are still fighting for their rights over there [in the West] as well, but [these battles] have helped redefine their ideas of beauty. I kept this on the album because the song and its visuals were so good that we had to give it another chance for people to hear on Superstar. Maybe people will connect to it differently.” “Misunderstood (Incomplete Story)” “This was the opposite of what I did with ‘Superstar’. I made the slow version first, late at night, like 2am or 3am. I was sitting in a room with no lights, just making this song. I felt like ‘Misunderstood’ had more of a ‘12 Saal’ vibe. That song had a flow. The right hip-hop beat did justice to it. I did [a more modern style of] hip-hop 12 years ago—but I didn’t know I’d done that! I was always keen on exploring my versatility as a composer because that’s where I’d started. With ‘Misunderstood’, I realised the melody was straight but the lyrics were powerful and it had a flow. I felt that it needed to be done in a hip-hop way because that’s the best way you can tell your story. There were a lot of news chunks [about me] that I picked up and put in this song as well. I thought, ‘If you want a fun show, here it is.’” “Mitti Da Khadona” “I like writing shayaris a lot. This one is about telling yourself that you don’t have to stand in the way of another person’s choices. Things aren’t working out because they don’t sometimes, because we’re all human. When you’re young and start getting famous—travelling the world and getting so much attention and money—you feel like you’ve done something [meaningful]. But then you start seeing other people as lesser than you—these are big people who have changed the world, but you don’t think much of them. At the end of the day, you’re just in the rat race so just do your part. Feel the emotions you want to feel, but everything will change.” “3 Saal” “If you ask me, as a musician but also as a listener and music fan, what’s my favourite song—it’s ‘3 Saal’. That’s some genius work there—and you’re hearing that from me. I think this song’s time hasn’t come yet, but it will come; that’s why I put it on this album. It’s based on some true incidents. Whatever life I’ve led, I collect a few parts of it and try to put [these parts] in the album. I’ve already worked on so much more ahead of this album and those songs will surprise the whole world.” “Superstar” “I don’t know if I should really say this, but I think my whole narrative for this album is that we should be open about our emotions, and it’s really okay to be heard. It’s really okay to be human sometimes. It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman or whoever you are—emotions are emotions. We’re told, ‘Be a man,’ but I wanted to break that and say: ‘No, we also feel a lot of things.’ It’s a very personal journey—my battles and personal experiences. It’s not just for my fans but also for my family. I’m their superstar and they’re my superstars too.”