From secretly singing pop songs in her bedroom so her parents wouldn’t find out to releasing her first official single in 2020, Swiss-Tamil artist Priya Ragu has come a long way. She grew up listening to her parent’s favorite Tamil artists, attending jam sessions with some of the Swiss-Tamil community, and sampling western pop songs when her parents weren’t present. Her brother, Japhna Gold, and her eventually combined R&B, Tamil, and hip-hop into their own style of music, which they crowned “Ragu Wavy”.
After working for Swiss International Air Lines for a while, Ragu eventually traveled to New York for six months in hopes of meeting other musical artists. However, the only artists she ended up collabing with was her brother, which allowed them to continue working on new “Ragu Wavy” songs; eventually dropping her first single, “Good Love 2.0”, Ragu subsequently dropped two albums – damnshestamil and Santhosam.
damnshestamil is super cool to listen to and features really funky beats, which compliments Ragu’s combination of Tamil and English lyrics, as well as her fusion of traditional Tamil instruments and basic pop instruments. It feels like something you would find in a Kollywood movie or on your everyday pop radio; Ragu and Gold do a great job of balancing Tamil and western music in a way that highlights them both without detracting from one another.
If damnshestamil was an introduction for the rest of the world to “Ragu Wavy”, then Santhosam was a celebration of her work. It’s full of fun beats that make you want to start dancing, accompanied by interesting sound effects and background vocals. It celebrates Ragu’s culture in a bold way, and proves that traditional beats from other cultures can be mainstream and appreciated by people from all over the world, not just where the music was created. Santhosam also discusses Ragu’s journey to making music as well as the hardships she faced, from balancing her job and music to conflicting with her parents’ opinion of western music.
My Top Ten:
- “Chicken Lemon Rice” (damnshestamil)
- “Vacation” (Santhosam)
- “Easy” (Santhosam)
- “Black Goose” (Santhosam)
- “Kamali” (damnshestamil)
- “School Me Like That” (Santhosam)
- “CornerStore” (Santhosam)
- “Deli” (damnshestamil)
- “Escape” (Santhosam)
- “Lovely Day” (Santhosam)
For fans of Japhna Gold, METTE, and Channel Tres.
