Badshah is like family: Payal

Singer Payal Dev has crafted a niche for herself in the music industry with songs such as The Jawaani Song (Student of the Year 2; 2019) and Tum Hi Aana (Marjaavaan; 2019). She has also made her mark in the independent music industry with the hugely successful Genda Phool and Toxic, both of which were collaborations with the rapper-singer

Badshah. Dev says, “Working with Badshah is an amazing experience. He is a great artiste and even better person. I have known him long enough and we both understand each other’s musicality which helps in the music creation process. He shares his inputs, thoughts and ideas which we can present in the song to understand what the tone and feel of the song would be like.”

Dev adds that Badshah is like family to her. “Just like me, he had a humble start to his career. We never had a godfather in the industry and we never had a great background to start with as we belong to a middle class family. For me, even dreaming about this world is something big, so that’s the reason we have a similar thinking,” she says, adding, “Badshah has always inspired me. We have many things in common and it’s very important to have such people around who can understand the value of success.”

Dev says her latest track, Toxic, is quite different from her usual numbers as it is an experimental song. “We wanted to try something new, a song in a slow pace, and we also wanted to know what the response to such a song would be like from the audience. Plus, being in lockdown, we decided to shoot the video at our respective homes. Honestly, this track was made before Genda Phool, and since we had to work on the video, we released it later. As a composer, it is always thrilling to work on different soundscapes,” adds Dev.

During the lockdown, Dev along with her husband, Aditya, has been working on some new music.

Payal Dev