India’s leading female pop star Jonita has teamed up with global icon Ed Sheeran to present a new collaborative take on his song ‘Heaven’. This new version is a unique cross-cultural moment, adding a fresh vitality to a song that originally featured on his latest UK #1 smash hit album ‘Play’. Listen HERE.
This new version of ‘Heaven’ is a natural extension of the adventures into Indian music culture that Ed Sheeran explored on ‘Play’. Jonita contributes a new Hindi-language verse, her sweetly melodic voice both charged with emotion and capturing the gentle, comforting innocence of heartfelt, uncomplicated love. The song’s spacious production and streamlined arrangement brings these emotions to the fore, especially when the duo harmonise on the song’s hook.
Jonita first met Ed Sheeran a few years ago in Bombay, and witnessed how genuine his interest in Indian music and instrumentation was – and that feeling was heightened when he played her early versions of the ‘Play’ songs which brought those influences to life. More recently she opened for him at his show in Chennai, and describes their collaboration on this track as “an honour I’ll hold close forever.”
Her Hindi verse means that she is a credited co-writer on this version of ‘Heaven’. She is added to the song’s original writing team: Ed Sheeran and his regular collaborator Johnny McDaid, plus Ilya Salmanzadeh and Savan Kotecha, along with Indian musicians Shayra Apoorva, Harjot Kaur and Rutvik Talashilkar.
Jonita seamlessly blends Bollywood and global pop influences, an approach which has amassed over 16 million monthly listeners at Spotify. Her chart-topping hits such as ‘The Breakup Song’, ‘Arabic Kuthu’, ‘Deva Deva’, ‘What Jhumka?’ and this year’s viral ‘Beparwai’ have contributed to a phenomenal total of more than 4 billion streams to date.
Her domestic success has been complemented with international collaborations which have previously included The Chainsmokers’ UK Silver-certified ‘Addicted’, and ‘Hello’ with Sigala and Leigh-Anne. A dynamic live performer, Jonita has also shared stages with Shawn Mendes, Dua Lipa, Post Malone and Michael Bublé, captivating audiences across multiple continents.
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