This year saw many international artistes performing in India, including Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Bryan Adams and Maroon 5. While these concerts took the Indian music scene several notches higher, singer Sunidhi Chauhan, who released her single Aankh recently, and has been touring, believes that it has made things more challenging for Indian artistes.

“Now, we have to live up to the standard set by these international concerts; that has made things tougher for Indian acts. We can’t say, ‘Those are international acts’ anymore, as the playing ground has become the same. We have to be at par with them. We will have to put in a lot more [effort] because the comparisons will be direct,” she says.

In recent times, many artistes, including singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh and singer Monali Thakur have criticised the infrastructure for live shows in India. Chauhan views this as an opportunity to improve: “The potential to improve is immense as there is ample money to invest. But you can’t hide or escape anymore, you will have to up your game. I want to go to an Indian artiste’s concert and say, ‘Ab mujhe aur kuch nahi chahiye’.”

Chauhan has emerged as a pop icon with her performances at her live shows. Mention this and the 41-year-old says, “I never did anything with the idea of starting something new. To this day, my go-to popstars are (singers) Alisha Chinai, Remo Fernandes, Shweta Shetty, and Colonial Cousins (singer Hariharan and singer-composer Lesle Lewis).”

Adding to it, she continues, “Indian pop music was lost for a while because film music overshadowed it, but thanks to social media, non-film music now has an audience. I have sung more film songs, but how I perform those songs on stage is seen as pop by the audiences. When they see me perform them, they don’t think of the actor it was picturized on because it sounds and looks different.”