Raveena Emanates Calm, Wholeness at Boston Show

Seeing Raveena live is a special experience. Her performance at the Paradise Rock Club on May 15 not only featured her signature silky voice, but also immersed the audience in an atmosphere steeped in romance, mysticism, and high-femme energy. Raveena is known for blending South Asian musical traditions with R&B, as well as pulling in strands of hip-hop, soul, jazz, and psychedelia. She is also one of the foremost queer Desi artists of our generation.

Although Raveena sings with serious vocal power, her performance emanated wholeness and calmness. In the middle of the concert, she led a guided meditation, a staple of her performances. The audience quieted as she invited everyone to close their eyes and focus on the image she painted.

In her performance of songs from “Where the Butterflies Go in the Rain,” viewers received Raveena’s signature beautiful vocals layered with her deep, intuitive feel for spirituality and romance. She also brought out beloved classics such as “Honey” (2017), “If Only” (2017), and “Temptation” (2018).

Yet the narratives in this newer album invite a sense of nostalgia as Raveena reflects on her childhood and teen years. In “Kid,” she sings about her past self, some parts of which she wants to leave behind yet continue to show up as her inner child: “it’s different, but that kid is always here.” “16 Candles” transports us to Raveena’s teary 16th birthday, a snapshot in time that reflects on the speed and ephemerality of life. Both Raveena’s music and performance style reflect her personal engagement with spirituality and meditation. It makes sense, then, that the practice of meditation and self-work has brought her to more explicit reflections on her past in her music.

Raveena’s romantic lyrics also stand out for their female gaze. In much music written from a heterosexual male perspective, women’s physicality is often the first source of desire, and love is represented as the consummation of this desire. Raveena also embraces physical sensuality and women’s beauty. In “Temptation,” she sings “I wish that I had your body // I’m envious of your curves // In my dreams, I can feel your softness // Get lost in your head of curls.” But in her music, the mystique of women largely does not emanate from the physical, but instead the spiritual. Raveena’s music insists that romance is as much physical as it is a spiritual practice – of two souls meeting, seeing each other, and creating wholeness. In this way, Raveena’s gaze elevates representations of queer sapphic love often missing from mainstream hip-hop and R&B.