"I always knew this video had to be shot in India"
Bursting onto the music scene in 2017, Raveena Aurora (known as Raveena) continues to prove she is one to watch.
Throughout her musical career, Raveena has unapologetically used her platform as a queer, South Asian artist to embrace self-love, and celebrate both her Indian culture and sexuality.
Raised in the United States, her discography blends genres.
She brings together elements of R&B, soul, jazz, pop, and Bollywood into a unique and dreamy style that fans ardently adore.
This combination of styles brilliantly showcases Raveena’s multifaceted identity, ingeniously lacing together both western and South Asian musical influences.
Speaking of her influences, in an interview with The Hindu, Raveena explained:
“In my own journey, as an artist, and visually, I love combining Bollywood influences.
“It’s the dreamiest, most ethereal space. It’s what I was raised on, it just feels so natural.”
In December 2022, Rolling Stone recognised her 2022 album Asha’s Awakening, by placing it as number 84 in their list of ‘The Best 100 Albums of 2022’.
This critical acclaim of Asha’s Awakening celebrates Raveena’s writing abilities.
However, we must acknowledgement her music videos, where her visions flawlessly come to life on screen.
Honey
Released in 2018, ‘Honey’ is a song that depicts Raveena’s feelings of contentment with a lover.
The soulful track is dripping in honey, providing the video with an undeniably intimate aesthetic.
It features a series of golden visuals of bodies glistening with honey, and couples of diverse races and genders tenderly embracing one another.
These visuals speak to the singer’s core values of acceptance and love.
The lyrics are wistful, sensuous, and warm, yet simultaneously remain upbeat.
With lines such as “I need you like I / need air / Spoonful of sugar, / yeah / My cup is fuller when / you’re there”, Raveena rejoices in optimism.
Her lyrics nod to Mary Poppins’ ‘Spoonful of Sugar’, with her partner, like honey, providing sweetness and remedy to life’s difficulties.
Raveena Aurora showcases her Indian roots through her choice of attire, adorned with a tikka and bangles, as well as intricate henna decorating her hands.
The video was shot on Kodak 35mm film, adding to the dreamy ‘70s style she is well-known for.
Temptation
Throughout her career, Raveena has proven herself as an artist who authentically presents her identity, advocating for self-acceptance both in her lyrics, her music videos, and her interviews.
‘Temptation’ is no exception.
Released in 2018, the music video artistically exemplifies Raveena’s bisexuality, beautifully framing model Giannina Oteto as the central point of desire.
The visuals are extremely creative.
Initially featured as a mysterious silhouette, ‘Miss Temptation’ (Oteto) gently draws Raveena’s attention, adorned in gold jewellery. The pair share tender looks, smiles, and caresses.
The video’s handling of queer relationships is captivating, beautifully conveying Oteto without catering to the male gaze.
Repeatedly using the image of the snake and the garden location, evocative of the garden of Eden, Raveena’s self-directed video is a work of art, complementing her lyrics imaginatively.
She silkily sings “Miss Temptation, I don’t think you know / You keep me waitin’, know you / like to take it slow”.
Using her platform to articulate her bisexuality paves the way for other South Asian women to express themselves.
Speaking on this issue, Raveena posted on her Instagram:
“Growing up, South Asian culture and queer culture felt like oil and water, something that simply couldn’t mix.
“I come from a super repressive and oppressive culture towards LGBTQ people, with sometimes dire consequences if u openly love who u want to outside of the heteronormative story.
“I’m pretty sure I liked girls before boys, but it took me until this year in my 20s, partly thru writing ‘temptation’, to be able to really verbalise and know in my heart that this was one of my truths.
“I hope that for lil brown girls in the future, their queerness will feel nothing short of completely, 100% mundane and normal.”
There’s no doubt that ‘Temptation’ brings forth the musician’s creative ability and strive for representation.
Mama
Released on Mother’s Day, ‘Mama’ is a heartfelt song exploring motherhood and the sacrifices made by immigrant mothers.
Personally dedicated to her own mum, the video opens with footage from her mother’s marriage.
This touching video exemplifies the struggles women face between the expectations of providing a home for their families and the pursuit of their own dreams.
Drawing from the experiences of the women in her family, Raveena is captured in New York City alongside her mother and grandmother, who moved there in the late 80s.
Speaking to DESIblitz, Parveen Kaur, born and raised in London by Punjabi parents reflected on ‘Mama’, stating:
“It makes you reflect on what most immigrant mothers had to go through, and how today things are so different.
“It also makes you realise how strong they were, the sacrifices they made, and how lonely it must have been.
“They did it without complaint.”
“It makes me realise how strong my mother was, sacrificing her own ambitions and dreams for her family.”
The video includes visuals of Raveena’s family in the temple, moments of her childhood, as well as footage of other immigrant mothers and their daughters.
Rush
Featured as the opening track on Asha’s Awakening, ‘Rush’ is an upbeat dance track powerfully incorporating musical elements from South Asian and western culture.
The album takes place from the perspective of Asha.
She’s a Punjabi space princess from the 1600s who gets transported to a highly spiritually advanced planet named ‘Sanataan’, where she is trained in spirituality and cosmic magic.
The attraction of the electronic track lies in its energetic fusion of sounds, featuring the guitar, bass, synths, and drum programming, as well as the tabla.
By incorporating these instruments together, ‘Rush’ is fresh and provocative – qualities that make her work truly unique.
Visually, the video is yet again another example of the musician’s remarkable vision, conveying her maximalist fantasy world through its technicolour backdrop.
Accompanied by iridescent alien-like people, Raveena’s choreography pays homage to her Indian culture.
She incorporated traditional Indian movements throughout the video, for which she engaged in extensive training.
On social media, the starlet explained her influences for the creation of Asha’s Awakening:
“It’s an experimental pop album and it was influenced by these two specific eras when South Asian musicians and western musicians were collaborating a lot.
“So, there were the 60s and 70s with Alice Coltrane, Asha Puthli, the Beatles: this whole psychedelic soul and rock era where South Asian sounds were infiltrating American pop.
“And then there was also the early 2000s with Timbaland, Missy Elliott, M.I.A, and later Jai Paul.
“And that was when sampling Bollywood music had become a really big part of American pop music.”
‘Rush’ ends with only the beat of the tabla and Raveena’s emotive Hindi lyrics: “Dil mera taam lo / Kehna to maan lo / Baaki sab jaane tho, oh.”.
Mystery
Opening with an old film certificate, ‘Mystery’ transports audiences into the golden age of Indian cinema. And, doesn’t disappoint.
Recorded in Mumbai, the video strikingly encapsulates the aesthetic of 70s Bollywood, using a rich pink and purple colour palette to create an enchanting look.
Announcing the release of the video on Instagram, Raveena emphasised:
“I always knew this video had to be shot in India and had to be a homage to early Bollywood films.”
The traditional wardrobe design adds to this nostalgia.
Raveena models a vibrant purple sari, wearing a bindi and styling her hair in a bun.
Thanking her team, Raveena explains:
“It was so fun running around Mumbai with u for two days and pretending I was a young Hema Malini.”
She adds how she’d spoken:
“A lot about how our memories as diaspora kids can get frozen in a period of time…
“…we all really wanted to explore this tracing back of memory.”
The song’s cinematography captures the love story between women, played by Raveena Aurora and Krithika Iyer.
The video ends in a rather bittersweet tone, poignantly pointing to the unavoidable loss of some relationships.
Following the release of Asha’s Awakening, Raveena announced how the music industry want’s to dilute South Asians and their culture.
She explained that this is done so they can ‘fit in’ as much as possible, whilst the art itself get’s ignored. The musician further expressed:
“It was so important for me to make an album that was loud and proud about its influence and culture.
“Making this album and diving into all this history really made me feel so seen and helped me understand where I fit into music.
“Thank you to every Black and Brown musician who inspired this album and who this album would not exist without.”
Raveena strikingly centres her heritage throughout her work, celebrating the vibrant nature of South Asian music and design.
Her choice to embrace this, a decision not always encouraged by the industry, is part of what makes her music so important.
More importantly, addressing these hard-hitting issues whilst celebrating her culture in these music videos is a sign of changing times.
Raveena’s approach to her craft is ingenious, leaving us excited to see what she releases next.
Check out more of Raveena’s music here.
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