Ankur Tewari brings his deft touch with words and melody to ‘Shehzaada Shehzaadi’, a love song set in a fantasy world that operates in the currency of love. This minimalist song is meant to sound as if it’s being played by a small blues band that could be found playing in a New York whisky bar. The harmonica and the brushes on the drums bring an old school feel to the song, making it an easy and addictive listen.

“I wrote ‘Shehzaada Shehzaadi’ while we were emerging from the gloom of the last two years,” says Ankur, who last year hosted the third season of MTV Sound Trippin’ and was also a supervisor on the Netflix show, A Suitable Boy. “The whole idea was to feel as if the whole world is taking a group hug. The song describes living in the moment, living to the max, being the prince and princess of the moment,” he adds.

Ankur is among the handful of Indian artists who have released so far on Snafu that has signed 45 artists to its platform so far, including multiple Grammy winner Hit-Boy and Grammy nominees NEVADA and Kosine.

Launched in 2018, Snafu – which has offices in Los Angeles, Stockholm and now Mumbai – describes itself as a hybrid tech and music company, with the heart of a record label and the mind of a start-up.

Snafu’s proprietary algorithms analyze millions of data points from over 150,000 songs per week, identifying artists whose music is undervalued and needs amplifying and evaluating them based on listener engagement, listener sentiment and the music itself. And that technology pointed to Ankur Tewari in the Indian market.

“Ever since we decided to set base in India, Ankur has been that one indie act we’ve always wanted to work with,” says Jay Punjabi, director of India, Snafu. “He’s not only an extremely professional and a talented artist but a very humble and fun person to work with. Our AI suggested his name as well and since then we knew we wanted him for our initial releases for Snafu India,” he adds.

Ankur Tewari’s talent shines throughout “Shehzaada Shehzaadi” and it’s very easy to see why Snafu has signed him up. Even though “Shehzaada Shehzaadi” is musically minimalist in nature, you can’t miss the strong songwriting and excellent performance. This track is a strong indicator that Ankur Tewari deserves to join forces with Snafu and ride high on a wave of acclaim and success.

Verdict: Charming.