Artist Spotlight: Priya Ragu worked at an airline in Zurich, then made Tamil R&B, and her third album lands 26 November

Before the music, there was a desk job. Priya Ragu worked as an accountant and technical buyer for an airline in Zurich, recording on the side with her brother, the producer Japhna Gold. Her parents are Sri Lankan Tamils who left during the civil war of the 1980s, and she grew up in St. Gallen, Switzerland, singing in her father's band, which played songs from Tamil films.

That mix is the whole sound. Ragu and Gold call it "Ragu Wavy": R&B, soul and hip-hop drums, with Tamil language and film-music melody running through it. If you have ever wished Raveena's warm, South Asian-rooted R&B had a louder, funkier cousin, this is it. (Raveena's ADMC spotlight is here.)

Start here

"Good Love 2.0" (2020). Her first single, and the easiest way in. It made her name outside Switzerland and also ended up in the FIFA 21 soundtrack.

"Chicken Lemon Rice" (2021). Named after a South Indian rice dish, and a good argument that a song about food can still be a love letter to home.

"Madras" (2026). The new title track, out since 22 October 2026. Madras is the old name of Chennai, where the album was recorded, and the song is the most openly nostalgic thing she has made.

"Adalam Va!" The official video sits on her channel. Her own channel is the place to see it.

Why now

Madras, her third album, is due on 26 November 2026 through AWAL. It follows the 2021 mixtape damnshestamil and the 2023 album Santhosam. Japhna Gold produced it, and the songs were written across Zurich, Goa, Mumbai, Chennai and Kerala before the record was made in Chennai. It has live strings and a children's choir, so expect something much less bedroom than her earlier work.

"Finally" came first, in September 2026, and "Madras" followed in October. Between them they say the album is going to be warm, big and unafraid to sound like a film song.

For a reader in India, the interesting part is the direction of travel. Plenty of diaspora artists make a record about the homeland from a distance. This one was written in Goa and Mumbai and recorded in Chennai, in the city whose name is the title.

If you like her, try

• Raveena: Punjabi-rooted, Sade-soft R&B. Quieter than Ragu, same sense of home.
• Kumail: The Mumbai producer and singer whose soul album we spotlighted earlier this week..
• Sampha: Another voice that turns small, private songs into big ones.

Press play on "Madras", then come back on 26 November.