Armaan Malik has Global

The 28-year-old musician is looking to drive Indian pop music to the world.

- SANJANA RAY

AFTER A DECADE of serving as one of Bollywood's leading playback singers, Armaan Malik is ready to cement a new identity: "Armaan Malik, Pop Star of India".

The 28-year-old musician has spent the past three years cracking the code to this musical rebirth. Providence was on his side; he calls the years 2020 and 2021 "catalysts" to a cultural revolution within the Indian music space. Film music was no longer a mainstay and independent artists finally had a platform to showcase their distinct sound.

Malik believes he was one of the artists spearheading this change. In 2020, he tied up with Arista Records and released his first English single "Control", which ended up winning an MTV Europe Music Award (for best India act). In November 2022, he bagged another one for "You". Somewhere in between came the highly unexpected collaboration with singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, and then one more international collaboration with K-pop singer Eric Nam and American producer DJ KSHMR. The manifestation to go global had borne fruit and then, as he puts it, "the game changed entirely". This year, he wants to learn Spanish and tap into another highly lucrative global music market. For reference, in 2022, Latin music revenue exceeded $1 billion.

The singer's new album, Only Just Begun, is symbolic in more ways than one. First, because it's in sync with the start of a new personal chapter: He recently got engaged to his long-time partner, model and influencer Aashna Shroff. And second, the new album will comprise a fresh, experimental indie-pop sound that he thinks will become synonymous with Indian pop at large.