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Have you ever driven down a long winding road that’s covered by a canopy of trees, on a beautiful day where the sun is shining and all of the car windows are rolled down? The wind is in your hair, and you smell the air outside. Maybe instead you went on a walk on the beach in the summertime, feeling your feet in the sand as the waves come in and water washes over them. It felt freeing didn’t it, maybe almost cathartic in a way? It’s like all of your troubles and nerves just washed away, rolling right off your back. That’s exactly how Priya Ragu’s new single “Finally” sounds: it’s joyful, vivid, and a freeing experience.

Priya Ragu is a Tamil-Swiss artist gearing up for the release of her upcoming album, Madras, that finds her at her most creatively free and joyful as she’s ever been. This record was written during an extended stay in India and recorded across Zurich, Goa, Mumbai, Kerala and Chennai (formerly Madras). What makes this project so special and significant is the roots of it all, drawing deeply from the light, colour and childhood memories of Priya’s life and transforming them into a rich, artistic display of affection and gratitude for the person she once was and artist she’s become now. 

Speaking of roots, growing and developing as a person is kind of like keeping a garden; you take care of it the best you can, and pull out weeds along the way, and also learn a lot as you go. Maybe you planted the wrong plant in the wrong season, but that’s okay, because you trust the process and growing is never linear. Priya’s new chapter of her career is like a new plant put into her garden, as Madras promises to be a return to authenticity and simplicity for Priya, pulling away extravagance and letting her voice come through in its ethereal nature, yet witty and sharp glory. From what we’ve heard so far, it’s exactly that and nothing less than you’d expect from Priya after her previous album Santhosam, which circles feelings of finding happiness and inner purpose. Madras is about applying those lessons in real time and learning to let yourself be not just free, but truly, authentically, alive.

“Finally” lets these evocative influences grow and dance throughout the track and become so present you almost feel as though you’re breathing them in yourself. It’s like you’re in the city of Madras, and seeing and feeling exactly what Priya did when she was making this record. As she continues to channel the South Asian sounds that occupy her memories while pairing them alongside the more contemporary R&B sounds that have become central to her strikingly love-tinged artistry she’s cultivated, what comes out as a result is the unique combination that only Priya could put out into the world and is exactly what she set out to do in the first place. It’s a sound that feels at once instantly familiar and thrillingly fresh. 

With Priya’s work being so close to the heart, it only makes sense her family would play a role in it as well. In Priya’s case, central to her work is her long-standing collaboration with her brother, Japhna Gold, her sole producer and close co-writer. Together they’ve developed a sound that fuses Tamil melodies and South Asian rhythms with left‑field R&B, electronica, hip hop and disco‑leaning grooves. On Madras, that palette is elevated through live instrumentation, including strings performed by an orchestra of veteran players, and the warmth of a children’s choir, giving the record a feeling that ties itself back into the themes of where Priya is artistically and personally learning to love and grow, one step at a time. 

Priya Ragu’s upcoming album, Madras is expected later this year, and after having the chance to listen to “Finally,” the first release of the project, we can hear Priya paying tribute to her past, present, and future, in a way that’s uniquely, totally, hers.