I got time to sit back and think about how I could re-envision my music: Ritviz

The crowd was in a trance as Indian singer-songwriter Ritviz performed some of his most popular hits as the headliner on Day 2 at the NH7 Bacardi Weekender in Pune. Like the conductor of an orchestra, the young artist - still only 25 years old - asked the audience to sing along to his tunes and, every time, they echoed in hypnotic unison. It showed not only how much people had yearned to listen to him but also how much they missed attending a live performance.

The excitement was palpable in both the performer and the crowd. It was perhaps for the first time after the Covid-19 pandemic hit that most of the attendees were viewing a live gig with such a large crowd. Their transfixed faces as the Punekar performed were proof of it. "Performing on a big or small or any sort of scale feels like home because Pune is home ground," he said, in an exclusive chat with Mid-day Online on the sidelines of his performance. "Doing NH7 Weekender is just the cherry on top of the cake - this is the one festival that will always be special."

His love for Pune remains a constant. When asked which is his favourite city, he says without hesitation, "Every city in the country is special but Pune is always going to be different and it has a whole different atmosphere." The future looks good for his fans because apart from creating music, the artist says this year will see him doing a lot of shows.

Speaking about the feeling of performing for a large crowd two years after the Covid-19 pandemic, Ritviz Srivastava, popularly known by his stage name ‘Ritviz', said "it was incredible". Since bursting onto the scene in 2017, he has already given listeners quirky and catchy earworms such as ‘Barso', ‘Jeet', and 'Chalo Chalein' which are impossible not to groove with. Unsurprisingly, at the recently-concluded festival - which was previously organised by entertainment company Only Much Louder (OML) but has now been taken over by NODWIN Gaming - he was able to make every single person in the crowd sway to his tunes.

The Covid-19 pandemic had created a gig vacuum. But just as they did for many other artists around the world, the virus closures also gave Ritviz moments to become introspective about his music. The result of this, he said, was seen live by the audience. "I got a lot of time to sit back and think about how I could re-envision my music and I think that happened during the pandemic and that is also what we witnessed here."

The re-envisioning was evident. While his music is primarily electronic, for this performance Ritviz was accompanied by the Bombay Brass Band playing wind instruments, a regular band, as well as backing vocalists. Together, they played his ‘Liggi', ‘Ari Ari' and several other hits but not before ending with ‘Udd Gaye' - the song that became an instant chartbuster and kicked off his journey as a star musician.