Mazhavillaye was a really exciting experience for me because it pushed me outside of what I naturally know and do. I have always believed music shouldn’t have linguistic boundaries. When this opportunity came my way, I was immediately drawn to the song’s sound and emotion. Malayalam is such a beautiful language to sing in because of the way the words flow. There is a musicality to the language itself, and I wanted to make sure I respected that rather than approaching it like I was simply translating my usual singing style into another language. The biggest challenge was obviously getting the pronunciation and nuances right, but that was also the most rewarding part. I spent a lot of time listening, repeating and understanding how a native Malayalam speaker would naturally deliver the words. The highlight for me was when I finally stopped thinking about the language and started feeling the song.

Definitely. Every language has its own musical identity, and Malayalam has a very distinct flow and texture. When you are singing in a language you are not completely fluent in, you become much more conscious of every syllable and vowel. Normally, when I sing in Hindi or English, I am not consciously thinking about diction. It is instinctive. With Malayalam, I had to be more intentional. At the same time, I did not want the technicality to take away from the emotion. For me, the goal was to reach a point where the listener would not hear a singer trying to sing Malayalam, but simply hear someone singing the song. That was the benchmark I set for myself.

There are a few Indian languages I really want to explore. I would love to sing in Assamese, Odia and Bengali. I think there is so much richness in the music and culture of these regions, and I would love to find my own way of connecting with those sounds. At the same time, I want to continue building my English Pop discography in a way that feels authentic to my roots. For me, going global should not mean moving away from where I come from. I want to find a sound that feels inherently Armaan, where my Indian identity is still present, even when I am making music for a global audience. I think that is the most exciting space for me to explore right now.

Kaho Toh felt like a beautiful return to my original Bollywood roots. It is a proper romantic ballad, and that is a space I have always loved as a singer. What was interesting for me was the approach to the vocals. This was not a song where I wanted to hold back and make everything intimate or understated. It needed a much more heroic approach to singing. I really had to channel those innate playback skills that I have grown up with and bring that larger-than-life quality to an out-and-out romantic love song. There is something very special about singing a classic Bollywood love song where the melody and the emotion are front and centre. Kaho Toh allowed me to tap back into that side of myself, while still bringing the experience I have developed as an artiste over the years.

The biggest change has been the democratisation of music. When I started, there were very clear gatekeepers. Labels, radio, television and films played a huge role in determining what reached audiences. Today, an artiste can make a song independently, put it out into the world and build an audience globally without waiting for someone to give them permission. I think that is incredibly exciting. At the same time, there is so much more music being released now that attention has become incredibly valuable. It is not enough for a song to just be good. It needs to have an identity, a point of view and something that makes people want to come back to it. I also think Indian music is entering a really interesting phase globally. We are no longer just exporting Bollywood music. There is an opportunity to export Indian artistes, sounds, stories and culture on their own terms. I think the next wave will be about making music that is deeply rooted in where we come from, but does not feel restricted by geography.

The biggest change is that I trust myself a lot more now. When I was younger, I was constantly looking outside myself for validation. Whether a song was good enough, whether my voice sounded right, whether people would like what I was doing. Today, I am much more comfortable following my instinct. I have also become more involved in the entire creative process. Earlier, I primarily focused on singing. Today, I think about the production, the sonic palette, the visual world, the storytelling and how the music ultimately lives with the audience. I have realised that making music is not about trying to create the song everyone will like. It is about creating something that feels honest to you. The more specific you are with your own artistic identity, the more universal the music can become.

There have been a few, but Control was definitely a turning point for me. It was the first time I really stepped outside the version of myself that people had become familiar with. I was not trying to fit into the idea of what an Indian playback singer was supposed to sound like. I was making a statement about the kind of Pop artiste I wanted to be. That experience gave me the confidence to take more ownership of my identity and my sound. It made me realise that I did not have to choose between being an Indian artiste and being a global pop artiste. Those two things could exist together. Since then, I have become much more interested in pushing those boundaries and figuring out what an Indian global Pop sound can actually be.