What’s real will resonate

Pic/By Special Arrangement

Numbers aren't the metric an artiste has while creating a song. Naturally, when musician Anuv Jain wrote his song, Arz Kiya Hai, the number of streams was the last thing on his mind. Yet, today, his heartbreak song has crossed 400 million streams across all platforms.

For Jain, the milestone has yet to sink in. He shared, "When I wrote Arz Kiya Hai, I wasn't thinking about numbers or milestones at all. I was trying to express an emotion as honestly as possible. To see something so personal become a part of people's lives, their late-night drives, heartbreaks, and quiet moments means more to me than I can explain."

According to the singer and songwriter, the track came from an emotional space where he opened up about love, distance, and expressing feelings that are hard to say out loud. That's why, he believes, listeners connected so strongly with Arz Kiya Hai. "People connect to honesty more than perfection. Nobody relates to a flawless life. They relate to vulnerability, confusion, love, loss, and all the emotions we often struggle to put into words," he reasoned.

Listeners today are as drawn to independent music as to mainstream. What they are seeking, as per the singer, is "something real". "Honest songs travel the farthest because emotions are universal. For me, music has always been about telling the truth, even when it feels uncomfortable or personal. Every time I sit down to write, I'm trying to make sense of a feeling I can't fully explain. I think people connect to songs emotionally because they see parts of their own lives inside them."