Fashion designer and cultural savant Malvika Sheth knows a thing or two about style, but with her debut single, “Love Is A Game,” she’s making it clear her skills reach much further than the runway. The digital content strategist takes a bold upswing into music, mashing her South Asian heritage with the glimmer of electro-pop, the sleekness of R&B, and the kinetic punch of dance.
Malvika’s musical storytelling draws from her training as a Bharata Natyam dancer, an ancient Indian dance form rich with rhythmic complexity and emotional nuance. That sensibility is throughout “Love Is A Game,” in its web of rhythms and emotional center. The song is a romantic spiral that feels deeply personal and broadly relatable at once, complete with the notions of longing, illusion, and the slow reclamation of power.
The track is a real lesson in fusion, blending contemporary Western vibes with classical Indian sounds. You will get immersed in a dreamy soundscape where tabla fills, veena riffs, and sitar drones dovetail with silky synths and pounding beats. But what really makes this song is the emotional undercurrent, a brutally introspective story of shame, self-delusion, and quiet strength.
Whether debuts are about showcasing vocal gymnastics or chasing that sound, Malvika’s feels refreshingly fucking intentional. As if every sound and phrase was selected to articulate a piece of her identity. This is music as self-expression, full of color and the cultural texture that informs her fashion sense, the line on which Vogue Elle Harper’s Bazaar and many others have so effusively run.
“Love Is A Game” is a promising opening that is mature, magnetic, and unmistakably her. If you’re a fan of genre-blending pop and socially aware storytelling, Malvika is an artist to keep your eye on. Fashion was only the beginning, and now she’s playing a different game and playing it well.
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