I used to dream of seeing them in concert, and I would lip sync to Shakira in my bedroom. I always felt far removed from that world, just because I was in India, which is so far away from where those pop stars are. Much like many other gay boys, I grew up listening to Britney Spears, Hilary Duff, Avril Lavigne, all of the pop queens we grew up loving. I paid a lot of attention to pop music, whether it was American pop music or British pop music. I’ve always been a little different from other kids in school and other people that I knew. Music in India is mostly Bollywood, but I was a little different. Growing up in India, did you have any influences that inspired you musically? It’s wanting something that somebody else has, and how a lot of times people deny that they’re feeling that way. How do you feel that the grass is always greener on the other side? It confronts that emotion about being completely natural, like, it’s natural to feel jealous, and the grass is always greener. Dance Like You actually explores feelings of jealousy, and it’s about looking at other people and wanting what they have. I want my music to make people feel good, and to get up and dance, but if you listen to the lyrics, they’re definitely darker. What I’ve done with a lot of my music is explore darker themes, but contrast that with upbeat tropical, club-ready beats. You’ve got a new song out called Dance Like You. I was like, ‘This is either gonna be really good or really bad.’ Luckily for me, I got a good response and I just kept doing it because when I’m in the studio, I’m 100% me in ways that I can’t be in real life. Yeah! When you’re putting something out for the first time, you have no idea what to expect. I released Feel Good Song and it went viral on Spotify, and the response felt so rewarding. It was so new to me, but I fell in love with the process of songwriting and being able to express myself in a way I didn’t know was possible. I got into the studio, wrote the song in a day, and cut vocals for it. I wrote my first single, Feel Good Song, back in the summer of 2016 and I flew to Nashville to work with a producer I met in LA. I started recording covers on YouTube back in 2014, and it wasn’t until 2016 that I felt like I wanted to write my own music. I’ll start off easy: how did you get into music?Įver since I was a young child, I enjoyed singing. I’m sure we can all relate huh? In celebration, we spoke to the up-and-coming artist and discussed his musical influences and what it was like to grow up gay in his home country. Today, Vardaan released his sixth single, Dance Like You, a dark dancefloor anthem which explores the feelings of jealousy and wanting what others have. I had that kind of a childhood, and it feels surreal to me that I’m now able to do what those people were doing for me back then.” “I used to dream of seeing them in concert. However, like us all, he was gagged by pop princesses such as Hilary Duff, Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne, which helped shape his identity as a pop performer. Growing up in India, Vardaan didn’t have many LGBTQ role models. “They’re cis, white gay men, and all credit to them because they’re amazing, but I just don’t think everyone’s getting the attention they deserve.” “Troye Sivan’s album did amazingly, the Years and Years record was also a commercial success,” he told us. The Indian-born performer, who became a viral sensation after the release of Feel Good Song in 2016, is determined to represent the “vibrant, diverse community of LGBTQ artists” by showing the industry that POC can slay just as fucking hard. Vardaan Arora is ready to conquer the music industry as an out-and-proud person of colour. But with Section 377B overruled, I do think that we’re starting to make a change.” “Heteronormative societal rules are so engrained in Indian culture that it’s very difficult to undo that work.