Hrishi Concludes India Tour at Jaipur Literature Festival

Known for his mashups as well as his unique approaches to pop songs like Maroon 5’s “She Will Be Loved,” Indo-American pop artist Hrishi recently kicked off his debut India tour, performing in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru in late January.

Now, the Carnatic pop artist will end the tour with a set on the Jaipur Music Stage as part of Jaipur Literature Festival 2025 on Feb. 1, 2025.

Over an email interview, Hrishi says the festival’s organizers, Teamwork Arts and talent management company Tulsea, reached out about two years ago when he dropped a mixtape called Apollo. “Our conversations were pretty sporadic until I met the founders during a trip to India last year. That’s when we really clicked, realizing we shared a vision for the cultural impact we wanted to make,” Hrishi says.

Kicking off at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) on Jan. 19, 2025, Hristi recounts the show as “surreal.” It was at that show that he interacted with an audience member who told him their “terminally ill parent” was listening to his music in their last month’s. “They came to the show just to tell me that and to encourage me to keep making music,” Hrishi says, adding that it’s s connection he’ll carry with him “forever.”

For his set at Jaipur Music Stage, Hrishi says he’s planning something “particularly special.” He adds, “It’ll offer the chance to perform for both diehard fans and new listeners. The setlist will reflect the best of both, my released and unreleased work.” Traversing pop, Tamil and Hindi songs and drawing from Carnatic ragas and texts, Hrishi describes his approach as something he’s honed since childhood, now being able to present it as “one unique musical experience.”

Hrishi is still releasing mashups and not yet fully focused on original music, but he says he’s seen plenty of encouragement in navigating the “tricky” social media audience to accept his solo songs. From taking on stages like New York’s Times Square for Diwali in 2022 to running packed shows in the U.S. over the last couple of years, Hrishi says “the live experience is different” when it comes to converting audiences for original music, compared to just going by social media stats.

With the India tour now wrapping up, Hrishi says he’s working to put out “some amazing projects” in 2025. At the top of the list is a collaborative album with German producer Robot Koch, which Hrishi describes as a “Carnatic-electronica album.” There’s also a “holistic wellness retreat” that Hrishi will lead with ragas, and a course on blending pop with Indian classical music.

Get details on Hrishi’s Jaipur Music Stage set at Jaipur Literature Festival here.