Anubha Bajaj on Opening for ‘Musical God’ A.R. Rahman and Her New Song ‘Jiya’

Pop artist and producer Anubha Bajaj sings about the bittersweetness in longing for a loved one on her cheery new song “Jiya,” which came out just as the singer-songwriter opened for music legend A.R. Rahman at his Wonderment Tour kickoff show in Navi Mumbai earlier in May.

Bajaj recounts that she brought an eight-member crew to the stadium gig, including “Jiya” collaborator, singer-songwriter Ashwin Adwani, producer Iqlipse Nova and more. “It went amazing. It was a great exposure for me and I got to learn a lot about the live scene and how performances go. Looking forward to more and more such gigs,” Bajaj says. The opportunity to open for Rahman came via Universal Music India, with whom “Jiya” was released. “We honestly couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity than playing for the musical god himself. It was an absolute honor,” she adds.

Best known for songs like “Lamhey” and “Savera” with millions of streams, Bajaj offers cheery pop for a serious song like “Jiya,” which she calls “one of the most personal” tracks she’s written. “I feel like the grey areas are always more authentic and relatable. Nothing in life can be purely black and white and I always let my creative ideas run free when writing a song,” Bajaj says.

Teaming up with Adwani as well as Germany-based producer Polar Beats, Bajaj believes her collaborators were indispensable to the project. “I think Ashwin absolutely killed it on the project. As for Polar Beats, our mutual musical understanding is so strong, the whole song was made through WhatsApp messages and voice notes. I’m not even kidding,” she says with a laugh. Bajaj adds, “We would just share voice notes and snippets all day long and we slowly built the song from ground up.”

“Jiya” marks Bajaj’s first single of 2025, and while she’s well aware of the enormous success of previous singles, she doesn’t overthink the song-making process in the hopes that it becomes a hit. She explains, “I mean I think any artist would be lying if they said they don’t see their songs as a ‘hit,’ when it clearly is one. The euphoria is always real. But for me, it’s about the experience of making that song that I remember more than the reception of the audience that came at a later stage.”