Interview: Jonita Gandhi Opens Up About Her Collaboration With Ed Sheeran on ‘Heaven’
When Jonita Gandhi stepped onto the stage in Chennai earlier this year to open for Ed Sheeran, she didn’t know the moment would quietly foreshadow something far more intimate than a stadium show. They had crossed paths before — backstage in Mumbai years ago, brief conversations, mutual admiration — but never on record. And yet, in a year crowded with global musical crossovers, their collaboration arrives without spectacle or surprise. It feels, instead, like an alignment that was always waiting to happen.
That alignment takes shape on a new collaborative version of Sheeran’s “Heaven,” a track from his UK No. 1 album Play. The original song thrives in restraint — soft, unguarded, emotionally spacious. Jonita’s presence doesn’t disrupt that stillness; rather, it extends it. Her newly written Hindi verse folds seamlessly into the composition, feather-light yet deeply felt, melting Sheeran’s tender vocals in space where cross-cultural exchange feels intimate rather than performative.
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For Jonita, the collaboration wasn’t driven by strategy or momentum. It simply fit.
“Ed has been working toward a project featuring Indian artists for some time,” she says. “I’m grateful he thought of me for the remix version of ‘Heaven.’ I’m not entirely sure what went into that decision, but I’m glad that’s how it unfolded.” She pauses before adding, almost softly as an afterthought, “It felt like the right song at the right time, with the right energy on both sides. Sometimes things really do align quietly like that.”
That sense of quiet alignment has long defined Jonita’s career. Her voice moves fluidly across languages, genres, and emotional registers without ever sounding displaced. When we spoke last year ahead of her debut EP Love Like That, she described her sound as “an organic blend of my worlds beautifully and thematically coming together” — the point where her Bollywood experience and Canadian upbringing finally met on equal footing.
“Heaven,” in many ways, feels like the natural next step.
Rather than approaching her Hindi verse with scale or grandeur, Jonita Gandhi let the song’s stillness dictate its own rules. The delicacy of the melody demanded restraint — a very different creative instinct from her expansive Bollywood hits or high-energy pop collaborations. “It’s such a delicate melody,” she explains. “Anything too heavy-handed would’ve taken away from its simplicity. I really let the song lead me.”
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Hindi, she notes, carries poetry inherently in its bones, which meant the challenge lay in letting that poetry whisper. Working alongside lyricists Shayra Apoorva, Harjot Kaur, and Rutvik Talashilkar, Jonita focused on phrasing that felt emotionally honest without demanding attention. “We looked for words that felt gentle,” she says. “And with the vocal production, I wanted my parts to feel like a hug.” That intention comes full circle when their voices finally meet on the hook — the moment the collaboration stops being an idea and becomes a sensation.
Unlike many global duets assembled through long, rigid studio sessions, the process behind “Heaven” unfolded with surprising ease. When Jonita received the track, Sheeran’s vocals were already complete. Instead of detailed instructions, she was given something rare in cross-border collaborations: trust. “His parts were already done, and I think he wanted to give me the creative freedom to weave in and out of the song in a way that felt natural,” she recalls. “The process was quite fluid. I’m grateful that Ed and his team really put faith in us to handle it.”
She spent time experimenting — layering harmonies, subtly shifting phrasing, exploring how their voices could coexist without crowding one another. “I loved playing around with different vocal ideas,” she says. “The producers were amazing at bringing it all together and making sure everything felt sonically aligned.”
That openness didn’t end with the recording.
Weeks later, Jonita and Sheeran reunited in New York and ended up jamming. She introduced him to sargam, guiding him through the nuances as he practiced with quiet focus and curiosity. The moment left a lasting impression on her. “For someone of his stature, he’s incredibly grounded,” she says. “He’s just a musician who genuinely loves making music — no ego, no pressure.” She laughs softly. “When I was teaching him the sargam portion, he was so patient and diligent. That really stayed with me.”
Sheeran has been equally open about his admiration for the singer. “I’m a fan,” he said in a statement. “This was the perfect tune for us to do together, and it’s the first Hindi song I’ve released. It’s an honour to do it with her.”
Credit: Jonita Gandhi
In that New York jam session — one pop giant teaching Indian classical nuances to another who approaches them with respect rather than novelty — the collaboration reveals its emotional core. This wasn’t a calculated fusion. It was two musicians, genuinely curious and fully present, nerding out in the language of sound. If Play marked Sheeran’s broader exploration of Indian rhythms and textures, “Heaven” grounds that curiosity in sincerity.
Jonita Gandhi sees moments like this as part of a wider shift in global music, one where Indian influence is no longer positioned as ornamental. “India isn’t just influencing global music anymore,” she says. “It’s becoming part of the global musical vocabulary. There’s a genuine appreciation for our rhythms, instruments, and languages — not as add-ons ‘exotic elements’, but as integral creative tools.”
For artists like her, that shift opens doors without asking them to dilute their identity. “The next few years are going to be exciting,” she adds. “More Indian artists will be able to collaborate globally on equal footing, bringing our sounds and telling our stories while staying true to who we are.”
Jonita Gandhi has been navigating that balance for years — from playback singer to indie artist to global collaborator. Each world demands a different creative muscle, and the complexity of moving between them often goes unseen. “People don’t always realize how much creative code-switching happens,” she says. “Playback requires you to become a character. Indie music asks you to strip everything back. International collaborations involve blending cultures seamlessly. Each space has its own expectations and workflows. Navigating all of it means constantly shifting gears without losing your artistic center. It’s a beautiful challenge — but definitely a challenge.”
Credit: Jonita Gandhi/ Spotify
That kind of creative elasticity doesn’t always announce itself, but when it does, it tends to ripple outward. “Heaven” is already bringing a new wave of listeners into Gandhi’s catalogue — some discovering her for the first time, others realizing she’s the voice behind songs they’ve long loved (“The Breakup Song,” “Beparwai,” “Arabic Kuthu,” “Deva Deva,” “What Jhumka?,” the list stretches endlessly). What she hopes resonates isn’t just the elegance of her tone, but the curiosity that fuels it.
“I’m endlessly curious,” she says with a smile. “I love experimenting with languages, genres, and collaborators. My voice is just one part of the puzzle. If people feel that I enjoy diving into new worlds and connecting cultures through music, that would make me very happy.”
That curiosity made her the first female artist signed to 91 North Records. It earned her a Juno nomination for her debut EP. It’s carried her onto global stages alongside Shawn Mendes, Dua Lipa, Post Malone, and Michael Bublé — and now into Sheeran’s first Hindi release. It’s also what allows her to move effortlessly from Punjabi folk reinterpretations to English R&B ballads without losing her sense of self.
Despite billions of streams, global tours, and career-defining milestones, Jonita’s compass remains surprisingly simple. “I always come back to why I started singing in the first place,” she says. “That pure feeling of joy and relief music gave me as a kid.”
And her family. Always her family.
“Making my parents proud is a huge part of who I am,” she adds. “They keep me humble, grateful, and aligned with the purpose behind all the milestones.”
That sense of purpose ties her journey together — from Bombay studios to global stages, from YouTube covers to Ed Sheeran’s first Hindi release. In many ways, “Heavesn” reflects the essence of Jonita Gandhi’s path: an artist shaped by connection, curiosity, and the quiet confidence to move between worlds without announcing the shift.
And now, with a verse that feels like a gentle pull toward home, she steps into a new global chapter — one that sounds unmistakably like her.
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