“It’s been an interesting India trip where I have been performing and learning Tamil folk music as well,” says Raman, who has so far released four albums. Two songs by Raman, The same song and Ye mera deewanapan hai were used by Mira Nair for her film The Namesake.

“I come from a south Indian background and have been brought up in the west, so I always try and bridge the gap between the two ethnicities and find an east-meets-west mix in my songs,” explains Ramanwho came to India in 1995 to study Hindustani vocals. Eventually, she returned to the UK to start a new musical journey with guitarist/ producer Sam Mills who will also be performing with Raman at the show. “In addition to writing our material, we discovered new and exciting ways to adapt the Carnatic songs I had sung when I was younger, particularly the work of the eighteenth century song masters Tyagaraja and Dikshitar,” she says.

While her lyrics are driven by her instincts, her inspiration is drawn from experienced musicians like Begum Akhtar, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground. And Raman chose to honor some of the classics that have shaped her musical sensibilities over the years in her fourth album called 33 1/3 that features Bob Dylan’s Like a rolling stone and Jimi Hendrix’ Voodoo child on the album among others. “They are covers but not a copy. I have reworked the original melodies and reshaped them in a raag. So it’s not the traditional Indian sound but there’s an eastern element to them,” says Raman, who has included some of these tracks for her Delhi set list.