\n\t\u201cI was really trying to show [Indian] classical music in a simpler light \u2014 make it more accessible, make it more singable,\u201d Tandon tells Billboard of the album, her seventh, which features 14 classical Indian ragas \u2014 melodic frameworks \u2014 with complex 6-, 7-, 8-, 10- and 16-beat rhythms. Having built what she describes as a \u201cmini cult following\u201d around her first six albums, now, she says: \u201cI would really love to broaden the audience.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tBlending ancient Vedic verses and Indian classical traditions with vibrant instrumentation and choral arrangements, Soul Ecstasy is part of Tandon\u2019s mission of spreading joy through both economic and emotional empowerment. The eight-song collection was recorded in New York and India with Tandon\u2019s longtime collaborator Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis album is about giving listeners access to their own joyous state in a blissful way,\u201d says Tandon. \u201cThe songs are more high-energy than my past work, and the choral elements invite people to experience that ecstasy together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBut producing the new album wasn\u2019t easy: To do it, Tandon and her collaborators assembled 75 musicians from Calcutta who played more than 25 different traditional Indian instruments, as well as 16 classical singers whom they trained to sing together as a choir \u2014 a tall order and unorthodox idea given that \u201ca lot of Indian music, classical music, is about individual expression.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Chandrika](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Chandrika-Tandon-Soul-Ecstasy-cover-billboard-1200.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\tChandrika Tandon, \u201cSoul Ecstasy\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShervin Lainez<\/p>\n
\n\tBorn and raised in India, Tandon now lives in New York, serving as the current artist-in-residence for Young People\u2019s Chorus of New York City. She was the first Indian-American woman to be made partner at consultancy giant McKinsey and Co. and then founded her own Tandon Capital Associates, but studied music at every opportunity, taking vocal lessons in her free time, training between her business meetings with Indian music masters and singing for 10 hours a day on days her daughter was occupied at summer camp. In recent years, she has devoted herself to philanthropy, supporting education and economic empowerment through the Krishnamurthy Tandon Foundation, donating $100 million with her husband 10 years ago to establish the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, and earning honors that include the Ban-Ki Moon Award for Women\u2019s Empowerment and NYU\u2019s Gallatin Medal. She releases her music through her nonprofit label Soul Chants Music.<\/p>\n
\n\tTo promote her new album, Tandon is planning immersive performances at The Town Hall in New York and Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh, where she\u2019ll lead meditation, sing-alongs, and \u201csacred sound experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI want my music to be a beautiful offering to the world,\u201d Tandon reflected. \u201cMy prayer is that Soul Ecstasy helps listeners begin their own journey into inner bliss.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTandon talked to Billboard about her devoted fanbase, and the goal of traditional Indian music and why Grammy voters and contenders should listen.<\/p>\n
\n\tYou have a cult following, receiving thousands of messages after the release of your Grammy-nominated debut album, Soul Call, in 2009. Who are your fans?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tFunnily enough, the 18- to 40-year-old man is my biggest demographic. Which is not what I would expect. There\u2019s a big demographic who like India and Indian classical music. And there\u2019s also a big demographic of that group that likes spiritual music of any kind \u2014 anything devotional. The yoga community. I would love to broaden the audience, so that\u2019s part of the idea.<\/p>\n \n\tYou\u2019ve spent time recording music all over the world, from Lebanon to Brazil. What makes traditional Indian music different?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tIn Indian music, you have to really settle your mind, because a lot of it is around pitch and resonance. There are a lot of areas around a note, but the best teachers try to get you to the purity of that thin point of the note. That requires your mind to be quiet. I\u2019d walk into a class and the teacher would say, \u201cYou know, you\u2019re not here, you\u2019re elsewhere, your mind is distracted. Let\u2019s spend the next 45 minutes on one note.\u201d You do that for 10 minutes and it\u2019s a little boring. By about the 20th minute, you\u2019re in a bit of a zone. And then remaining 10 minutes, you\u2019re in a space of such a peace that you find yourself. So then I said, \u201cWell, this is very interesting. I\u2019ve got to get into meditation. I\u2019ve got to understand why I feel so happy.\u201d Because that\u2019s what was happening. Music helped me find myself. I started writing \u201clove, light, laughter\u201d on every email I wrote.<\/p>\n \n\tWhat can other Grammy contenders take from this album?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tIf you look at the goal of what Indian music is, what my earliest teachers have told me, from the very beginning is that music is, you do music to find the divine in you. And then, and then they say when you step out of the way, the divine takes over.<\/p>\n \n\tSoul Ecstasy is a very important title, and a very important goal, and a state of being that we can always aspire to, because when we reach deep inside us, it\u2019s not just about peace and quiet. There\u2019s a part when you really get to a beautiful, quiet spot and you can really bubble up with joy.<\/p>\n
![\"Billboard](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2HpFicp.png\")