● Thursday · 9:00 AM PT · Episode 662 · Exclusive interview

She was told there were no roles for little Indian girls. That was a Broadway audition. The record labels said roughly the same thing. So Raveena Aurora went back to nannying in New York, saved what she could, and paid for her own music. Then her COLORS performance of “If Only” went up, and everything changed.

She grew up in a Sikh household in Stamford, the daughter of parents who left Punjab after 1984, with a harmonium and tabla in the house and Punjabi as her first language. At seventeen she moved to Queens with a voice that sounds like nobody else’s: soft, floating, half R&B and half prayer. That voice became Lucid, then Asha’s Awakening, an album sung as a Punjabi princess from space in honor of Asha Puthli, then Where the Butterflies Go in the Rain, for which she wrote 115 songs. It took her to Coachella in 2022, the first woman of Indian heritage to play it solo, and to Mumbai for her India debut at Lollapalooza. Along the way: records with Vince Staples, King Krule, JPEGMAFIA and our own Prateek Kuhad.

Thursday she sits down with Sammy. On the table: what was playing in that Connecticut house when she was four, the eleven-year-old who sang in the bathroom for hours, the day the music finally paid more than the nanny job, the debt every South Asian artist owes Asha Puthli, and “Blissed Out,” her first new music since losing her mother last year. She says she wants listeners to meet her where she is. Sammy wants to hear where that is.

● Wednesday · 9:00 AM PT · Episode 661 · Exclusive interview

“Stalk” with Gurnazar in 2022 was the first record anyone noticed. “Dard” in 2023 broke him. “Finding Her,” January 2025, with Bharath on the beat and Saaheal on the words, went to №19 on Spotify’s Global Viral chart with listeners in Canada, the US, the UK and Pakistan. Listen closely: the lyrics are heartbreak, but the music isn’t sad. He wanted a breakup song you could play the minute you wake up. This year he has put out a record almost every month, English titles on Hindi songs, and the newest, “Jiyara,” came out September 17, on his birthday.

Wednesday, Sammy finally gets him: on KK and Kailash Kher, on who the English titles are for, the kid in Dehradun or the kid in Jersey, and why he doesn’t want to know where his sound is going.

A kid who came to California on Bohemia and Jazzy B, found Jagan in high school and found the Vallejo scene doing shows in its own backyard. “Anthem” broke on eighty to a hundred hand-cut Instagram reels until a hundred thousand people found it in a week, without a dollar behind it. There is an abandoned train with “Alada Munde” painted on the side, a Kendrick peacock turned into a Punjabi beat, and a studio joke that became the hook of “Richard Milly,” Jassi’s favorite song on the new Still Boomin EP.

Sammy’s frame: California kids sending Punjabi culture back home. A return signal.

“Listen to nobody but yourself.” — Jassi’s advice to the next kid coming up

“Piya Bina” is the first song she has ever written. Viraha, the old classical word for the ache of separation, sung over a sarod and a modern beat, out on Salim–Sulaiman’s Merchant Records. It isn’t film music and it isn’t pop, and it had no business finding 300,000 listeners on Spotify. She is as surprised as anyone.

She started at four. Ten years with one guru built the strength in her voice; then she went looking for the softness and moved to a woman teacher, and her family heard the change before she did. She applied for the Government of India’s young artists scholarship, didn’t get it, applied again, and is now one of 38 Hindustani vocalists in the country to hold it. She once sang for Anoushka Shankar for half an hour. And where most classical singers guard their riyaaz like a diary, Maahi posts hers, cracks and all: if you don’t teach the audience what a raag is, a concert is just a transaction.

“Learn the rules. Then break them.”

Out now · Thursday’s guest

Raveena — “Blissed Out”

Also on the wire

Diljit Dosanjh at the Latin Grammys, Thursday, November 12, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas: the first Indian artist to perform at the ceremony, on a bill with Karol G and Bizarrap, in the year Daddy Yankee is Person of the Year. “POKITO,” their record together from Yankee’s La Postal, debuts at №4 on our board.

Kushagra — “Jiyara,” with Vampire, out since September 17. Released on his birthday; a record almost every month this year. Wednesday’s conversation ends on it.

Jassi Gosal & Jagan Randhawa — Still Boomin, out now. “Anthem” goes into Monday’s interview and “Richard Milly” comes out of it.

Maahi Zaveri — “Piya Bina,” on Salim–Sulaiman’s Merchant Records. The first song she ever wrote, on Tuesday’s show.

Ramayana: Part 1 is in theaters. “Mangal Rang,” A.R. Rahman with Arijit Singh, Shreya Ghoshal and Kumar Vishwas, debuts at №8; “Ravana Tandav” leaves the board after opening week.

KING — “Tu Mil Jaaye,” Sachin-Jigar with Arijit Singh, Ed Sheeran, Madhubanti Bagchi and Kumaar, arrives at №15.

Calendar. Diljit at the Latin Grammys Thursday, November 12. Priya Ragu’s Madras November 26. Malvika’s December, Baby December 10.

Debut of the Year: nine new records in one week makes the case harder

Fifteen different songs have held №1 since June, and this weekend turned over nearly half the board. Sammy hands out ten awards at the end of the year: Song of the Year, Artist of the Year, The Bridge Award, Debut of the Year, Conversation of the Year, The Launchpad Award, Producer of the Year, Collaboration of the Year, the Legacy Award and The Horizon Award. Make your case at @rukusavenueradio.