Chennai / Mumbai: Music maestro AR Rahman has done it again. His new studio album Manzil — his first independent album in six years — debuted at number one on both Apple Music and Spotify India within hours of its midnight release, breaking streaming records and reaffirming the 57-year-old composer’s unmatched hold on Indian and global audiences.
Manzil features 12 tracks across Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, and English, with three instrumental pieces that Rahman describes as his “most personal compositions to date.” The album marks his most ambitious international collaboration yet, featuring Grammy-winning American singer H.E.R., British-Pakistani vocalist Arooj Aftab, and Turkish classical musician Mercan Dede.
Speaking at a virtual launch event attended by fans from over 40 countries, Rahman said Manzil had been nearly three years in the making and was born out of a period of deep personal reflection. “Music has always been my way of finding direction when I feel lost. This album is my conversation with myself — and hopefully, with the world,” he said.
The lead single, Roshni, featuring Arooj Aftab’s ethereal vocals over Rahman’s signature layered soundscape, has already crossed 5 million streams in under 24 hours. Music critics have praised the album’s fusion of Sufi, Carnatic, jazz, and electronic elements as “distinctively Rahmanian yet startlingly new.”
Rahman also announced a 22-city global concert tour, The Manzil Tour, which will include dates in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Dubai, London, Toronto, and New York between October and December. Tickets for Indian shows reportedly sold out within minutes of going on sale, crashing the booking platform.
The album release comes weeks after Rahman was conferred with France’s prestigious Legion d’Honneur, one of the world’s highest civilian honours, for his contribution to the global music industry. His film Lagaan, which he scored for, also recently featured in the BBC’s all-time Top 100 World Cinema Films list.
