At just 27, singer Armaan Malik has achieved what others could only dream of. From winning a trophy at the MTV Europe Music Award 2020 to becoming the first Indian artiste to get recognised by Grammys Global Spin for his single ‘You’ and collaborating with world pop sensation Ed Sheeran, Armaan has done it all in a very short span of time.
However, Armaan feels that despite having achieved so many feats in his career, he is still not taken as seriously as he should be in the industry, which he says, is a little demotivating at times.
“We have not seen a lot of young achievers doing stuff so early on, breaking the glass ceiling, pushing the envelope, and doing something different in our industry,” Armaan tells us. “And, I dare to do that. For me, it’s always been about taking risks and doing things that probably I have not done before or anyone from our country has not done before. It’s just the kind of drive and passion I have as an artist. And sometimes when you look back upon how it was received or how people look at your journey, a lot of them in passing say, ‘Abhi bhi aap chote ho, bahut time hai aapko bahut saari cheezein karni hai.’ I think it’s a little demeaning to artistes, or people who are young and achieving a lot at that age.”
Armaan further says that a section of people have made him feel that he needs to do better and bigger despite having already done so many things so he decided to vent all his disappointments when he got an opportunity to sing alongside Ed Sheeran on his popular track ‘2Step’.
“I did feel like my achievements were being reduced in terms of like the magnanimity of it. I have done certain things that I feel like are really, really big. And I’m saying it in the most humblest of ways, but sometimes some people still say, ‘Abhi bhi bahut karna baaki hai.’ That’s how it’s been treated. It’s just the way our system is. I feel like I wanted to speak out about it, that age is not not a factor to see what someone is doing and not take anyone lightly just because they’re small, younger, whatever,” says Armaan.
The singer continued, “So I truly felt like that in my journey in different situations, which is why when I got the opportunity to speak out about my journey on Ed Sheeran track, I went all out. I talked about how my voice was removed from certain songs, I talked about how because I was young, a lot of opportunities I didn’t get or people reduced the bigness of what I’ve achieved so far. I think these are things that not a lot of mainstream pop artists have spoken about. A lot of rap and hip hop artists talk about their journey, and talk about what they’ve been through, where they’ve come from and what their backstory is. But artistes who are from Bollywood scene, or the pop music scene have never opened up and told people what they have gone through what they felt. And here I got these 30-35 seconds to say my story, and I made proper use of it, I believe so.”
Armaan is currently receiving praises for his newly released track ‘Tu’ in collaboration with Spotify singles. ‘Tu’ is a Hindi version of the popular English ballad ‘You’ by Armaan.
Talking about the same, the singer says, “When I made the English song, I kind of wrote a version in Hindi as well on the side because I felt the tune had a very Hindi lyric sensibility as well. So I had it ready, but I didn’t know what to do with it. So we released the English version first and the response to it was phenomenal. It’s done beautifully on the Spotify platform as well. It’s crossed more than 11 million streams. And now with this new version, we just want to include a larger audience and a larger listenership. It’s done in a way where the original’s essence is maintained. Lyrically, it’s not a translation, not a direct translation, but it’s got the whole vibe and that whole warm, fuzzy feeling of love when you find that person for yourself. So yeah, it’s got all the ingredients of the original ‘You,’ but packaged in a ‘Tu’ way.”
