Raveena Mehta Celebrates Companionship and Freedom in ‘Awara’ Video

Singer-songwriter Raveena Mehta sings about finding peace and comfort in a life partner and how it spurs her on to push boundaries and defy societal norms on her new song “Awara,” produced by YSoBlue and featuring lyrics written by Azadd.

The music video sees Mehta and her dog in her palatial home in Belgium, where she’s now moved from to New York following her wedding. In fact, her wedding aftermovie also came with a song release, “Sona Jeha Chehra” sung by her and featuring music b Azadd. Building that kind of persona as a musician online, Mehta is well aware that “social media is all about perception.”

She adds, “It’s definitely something I’ve had a tough time with over the last couple of years […] As an artist, you’re very deliberately curating your perception. So you want to make sure that you’re doing it in a way that it’s comfortable for you. But then I think along the journey, there have been moments where you don’t let social media govern you.”

Currently based out of New York, Mehta notes that her environment does change her creative processes and she’s meeting a few artists from the South Asian diaspora in the U.S. with an eye on collaborating with them. She says, “Just being around that kind of energy is incredible and the hustle is similar to Bombay. Brooklyn is a different borough, with an artsy, very warehouse-y and it’s amazing.”

The sense of liberty that came with going back to Mumbai for the first time since she’d gotten married and moved to New York was one of the catalysts for Mehta to work on “Awara.” With YSoBlue, she’s worked on previous singles like “Kho Jaun Main,” “Moonlight” and “Tere Liye” that leaned more on R&B, but her latest Hindi song took on a disco-funk and synthwave sound. Mehta says, “It’s a very free song – that’s what I wanted to put across. I wanted to step away a little bit from the very R&B sound. Melodically, I’ve still kept it quite R&B, because I enjoy that space and I enjoy my vocals.”

Mehta has been releasing music for more than a decade now, but her first creative pursuit (arguably) was drawing and painting. “I was four to five years old. When I started writing is when I started drawing and it was very innate, almost. For me, it’s a lens into the world and helps be more aware,” she says. To that end, Mehta continues to paint, sculpt and has slowly shifted into the fashion world as well.

Even as those projects continue, Mehta worked with British-Indian producer Rishi Rich on an upcoming EP. “I had spent a week in London earlier this year in March. It was like a proper camp where we were coming up with I think some of the most magical, amazing songs like from different genres, different vibes and obviously Rishi’s vibe is just so iconic,” Mehta says. The first single is likely to be out next year. “I think vocally, you can see my range a lot across different genres,” she adds.

Watch the video for “Awara” below