If you grew up during the early 2000s in India, you might have heard about Viva!, the iconic girl pop group that was formed by Channel V. Now in 2024, Indian pop’s new wave is making its mark with First5, a recently released next-gen boy band’s debut single, Tu Aadatein. The group, featuring Tan, Daksh, Yoshi, and Elton, mentored by Aksh Baghla, with their upbeat music video has garnered lots of attention and has crossed on YouTube 120K views.

Hailing from Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, and Uttar Pradesh, the boys are currently residing in Chandigarh, where they live together, work on their craft, and take dance and music classes. Aksh, who formed the group 2023 emphasized their focus on showcasing their journey and authenticity through music. Their Instagram feed gives an insight into their lives—fun covers of songs across candid moments, languages, and rigorous rehearsals.

Inspired by international pop, especially K-Pop, First5’s covers of Indian and Korean hits, including BTS V and IU’s Love Wins All, have helped them earn a growing fanbase. With their second track, choreography-centered performances, and a heartfelt melody, First5 aims to solidify their position in the burgeoning pop music scene of India.

A content creator, songwriter, and singer from Himachal Pradesh, First5 is Aksh’s baby. “I began creating content on YouTube a few years ago, all thanks to my love for pop music. I realised that if I wanted to bring together a group, I needed an audience and began focussing on building my content and YouTube channel,” he says. With more than 3 million subscribers on YouTube, Aksh has now become a familiar face online — for his many mashups related to music, and his ‘1 guy 30 voices’ genre of videos. 

“The whole journey leading up to the release of our first single has been a roller coaster of emotions,” says Aksh. While he was First5’s member, due to financial roadblocks he had to take up the mantle of their investor and manager meaning he had to return back from being a performer. 

“The song came together in 14 hours,” Elton says. “We were so into writing the lyrics and composing that I’m pretty sure we all forgot to eat that day,” he laughs. While Daksh, describes the experience as nothing short of a roller coaster of emotions, Tan chimes in, in Hindi which translates to, “The fruits of labour sure are sweet!”

“There are so many fan pages already, talking about how to stream our music,” Elton says, and Aksh chimes in about how it has been amazing to see this kind of a community build so fast.