Swiss-Sri Lankan star Priya Ragu’s journey to embracing her musical roots was a gradual one. Starting out singing the sultry 1990s’ R’n’B she was enthralled with as a child, it was only when she was in her late twenties and her producer brother Japhna Gold encouraged her to delve into the Tamil music they grew up on that she found her voice. Her ensuing breakout hit, 2020’s “Good Love 2.0”, fused R’n’B vocal acrobatics with samples of Tamil-language “Kollywood” films to produce a captivating new sound. 2021’s debut mixtape Damnshetamil then stretched the bounds of this experimentation to create the tabla-shuffling hooks of “Chicken Lemon Rice”, the folk-infused “Kamali” and the Afrobeat inflections of “Lockdown”. It is an effortless repurposing of nostalgia that produces a fresh take on tradition that gives Ragu her distinct and danceable sound.