We recently saw a viral TikTok showing how dozens of people were unable to give an example of a South Asian popstar. One person named Charli XCX who is half Gujarati, but that said, her Eastern heritage does not have an presence in her art, for now.
The most underrepresented artists in entertainment are South Asian. Britney Spears‘ Grammy award winning song Toxic samples Lata Mangeshkar and S. P. Balasubrahmanyam‘s Tere Mere Beech Mein, uncredited. Grimes used Bollywood interpolations on Easily, and Selena Gomez sampled Bollywood Sounds‘s Dachee on Come & Get It, so we know that the sounds themselves are desirable, but where are the artists?
Beyond M.I.A., whose views have been questionable of late, we wanted to platform some rising South Asian artists who are making an impact in their own authentic way.
TASHAN
Born to a father from Varanasi, India and a mother from Bern, TASHAN (also known by her online moniker as Bombay Mami) grew up in Switzerland but visited India to escape European winters. She says, “I was always connected to my culture through my father, the food, through fashion. Obviously, it was further away than the Swiss culture. When I moved to London, it changed because there were so many South Asians in London and it really helped me reconnect.”
She has released a slew of original releases this year, we love her songs Yoga, Delikat, Bunda and Poppin. Her visuals are out of this world, and with her online presence, one cannot help but fall in love with TASHAN.
NEO 10Y
With high concept lyricism rooted in Vedic philosophies of peace, NEO 10Y is a subversive artist, creating expansive spiritual pop songs, often featuring sitar and Hindustani vibrato as a core of his soundscape.
The artist who identifies with oneness and is an advocate for ahimsa (non-violence) grew up in London, but has spent a lot of time in NY and LA. He has performed from raves to the Roundhouse, in Europe and America, and has been praised for his multi-dimensional artistry by Billboard, Paper, The Evening Standard, Rolling Stone, Dazed, Interview and Indian publications including ELLE and L’Officiel. His latest single is the tantric love song, Spiritual Viagra and the song which most encompasses his message is Shortcut To World Peace, although the themes of love and expansion run throughout his discography.
NEO 10Y‘s name means oneness/complete, which holds the same meaning as his ancestral birth name, Nikhil. You can read a more in depth explanation here.
Raveena
Raveena Aurora was raised between Queens and Connecticut by Sikh-practicing, North Indian parents. Growing up with Bollywood soundtracks, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone side by side, Raveena began writing songs at 13 and experimenting with different genres.
She recently performed in Brazil, and now has an expansive fan base all over the world. For Raveena, music is meant to be a “complete expression of the self.” It’s a truth she’s leaned on through a whirlwind couple of years, which saw a potent flurry of output and a pointed ascent into the conversation with her critically-acclaimed 2019 debut full-length, Lucid, and 2020 follow-up, Moonstone EP.
Inspired by artists like Sade, Corinne Bailey Rae, Minnie Riperton, and Indian singer Asha Puthli, Raveena is a highly creative, dynamic, and spiritual artist who aims to build fully-realized worlds within each of her projects: conceptual experimentations in sound, threaded together by stories of healing and self-realization meant to experience from start to finish.
Joy Crookes
British-Irish-Bangladeshi artist Joy Crookes has fast become one of the UK’s most exciting new artists. Her unique approach to storytelling within her songs, partnered with her infectious charisma has seen her become a treasured and trusted new voice both musically and across her social media. Joy uses her creativity as a tool to understand her own identity, her place in the world and her relationships within it.
At just 22, she has acquired the most fiercely of loyal fanbases, notching streams into the hundreds of millions, and has cemented herself as an important and influential part of new British music. After being nominated for the Brits Rising Star award, Joy went on to become the most widely tipped artist of 2020 and sold out her debut UK tour in a matter of hours.
October 2021 saw Joy release her long awaited debut LP SKIN – a collection of songs built and honed throughout her adolescence and into her early twenties, and finessed last year within the most turbulent of circumstances. Touching on topics such as mental health, relationships, and politics all with grace and sensitivity, Joy has created what can only be described as a truly special body of work that is both perfectly of the moment, and entirely timeless.
Khasaia
Newcomer Khasaia just released her debut EP, Surround Sound which features pulsing baselines, luscious vocals, poetic prowess, infectious and exquisite production. She just hosted a listening party (and early birthday party) in London, where she played the EP in full for friends and fans, to much success.
We love Khasaia‘s charisma and nods to 2000s R&B in aesthetic and her sonic universe. Fans of TLC, Destiny’s Child, Janet Jackson, Doja Cat and Normani will definitely be able to connect with Khasaia‘s sound, though she is certainly creating a vibe of her own.
Speaking on her heritage and lack of representation, she recently said on Twitter, “Realising the reason why I’m struggling in music is because we’ve never had a major South Asian popstar in Western world. It’s different – an Indian girl as a R&B/popstar is not something people are accustomed to supporting. I have a calling to open doors, I’m paving a way…”
Vardaan Arora
Vardaan Arora is an Indian recording artist, songwriter, and actor based in New York. His Spotify biography simply says, “I just wanna write songs that make you feel good…”. Vardaan’s introduction to the pop music scene happened with his debut single, Feel Good Song in 2016. The song, written by Arora himself, charted on Spotify’s Viral 50. In 2018, following the release of his single What If, Arora was named one of Billboard’s 12 LGBTQ Musicians to Discover During Pride Month.
As an actor, Vardaan Arora appeared in the Netflix psychological thriller Gypsy, starring Naomi Watts, and more recently he was cast in the film< Wrong Turn.
Vardaan has been an outspoken advocate for the LGBT community, and has also been open about his struggles with obsessive–compulsive disorder in order to gather more awareness about mental health issues. In August 2020, Arora released his debut EP, Heartbreak On The Dance Floor. Vardaan told Billboard, “I think I went into this industry pretty blindly, and because of that, I was still figuring out who I was as an artist for those four years…I’m aiming to make a big impact — I want to make a statement with this.”
Nikitaa
Nikitaa combines ethereal pop/R&B with a subtle nod to the South Asian soundscape to bring us a genre she calls “Goddess Pop”. Nikitaa’s first two singles Honest and Exodus garnered half a million Spotify streams.
Her first Punjabi single in India, Vichoda Yaar Da was critically acclaimed and garnered just over a million YouTube plays, and was followed by a successful mashup cover of the legendary songs Aa Jaane Jaan and Piya Tu – a release sponsored by HMV and also rose to a million views.
Featured on New Music Friday playlists across the world for her award winning third English release Majesty, the songstress aims to empower people across the spectrum through her music. In her own words, “Every person has that Goddess power within them that honors the feminine within and without. I hope to remind people of this and uplift and empower them with my music, giving them space to express all their feelings no matter what it is they feel.” We have been obsessed with her recent hybrid release, Bad Trip (Sitam)!
FEAR OF MARKO
With Pakistani, Jamaican, Irish and Scottish descent, FEAR OF MARKO merges confessional emo songwriting with glitchy, electronic rock production.
Hailing from Manchester, the artist began writing songs in his teens, sharing them online to SoundCloud and Youtube. After releasing two mixtapes online MARKO (Marcus Connolly) began to release music under the name FEAR OF MARKO.
Calling back to the days of emo rock and glitch pop of the mid-late 2000’s, MARKO’S music influences range from My Chemical Romance and Green Day to Sleigh Bells & Britney Spears. His new record, Violent Ends is set to drop on November 30, featuring five songs including Blood For Tears, Sting! and Dizzy!
Riya Gadher
With support from BBC Introducing and BBC Asian Network, Riya Gadher was born and raised in Leicester, and now lives in London. She comes from a musical family, and was brought up listening to a variety of artists ranging from Michael Jackson, Coldplay, The Beatles to Drake, XXXTentacion and Rihanna.
Speaking on her interests, Riya says, “I like to keep an open mind when it comes to the style of music I listen to! As most kids do, I sang all the time as a child but it was at age 10 when I started to take piano lessons.”
The rising artist adds, “Growing up, I’ve always been a quiet person but after discovering the piano, it just felt like a more comfortable and natural language to portray my creativity and emotion through. I have huge dreams, one of them being for my music to be recognized worldwide and to be given the opportunity to sing on the biggest stages! That being said, whether it brings comfort, help, inspiration or joy to just a handful of people, I’ll feel like a winner.”
We can’t get enough of her debut single, Indian Ocean and if you have a dig online, there are some outstanding live performances from the rising star!
HASZNAT
HASZNAT is an emerging independent London-based artist with Bengali ancestry, who released their hard-hitting debut single and video, REAL ROTTWEILER and follow up EP, HASZNATONLINE, which we featured this year.
HASZNAT has been performing in London at venues including Colour Factory London for REDLINE and for club night PXSSY PALACE, and their new single, GAUNT / PRESSURE (out now) was just featured by BBC Introducing.
Elaborating on their sense of self, the artist confesses, “I am non-conforming, not just in identity but as an essence in all I am as a human and artist. I started out in fashion styling and creative direction and as of last year, I started making music, knowing that I AM MY OWN REPRESENTATION. South Asian artists need to be more prominent in the creative industry and I am here to MAKE NOISE.” HASZNAT proudly claims the likes of M.I.A, Death Grips and The Prodigy as initial educators when curating their sound.