It's surreal that I've share the stage with Ed Sheeran: Jonita Gandhi

Back in 2018, Jonita Gandhi had done a mashup of Ed Sheeran’s Photograph and Agar Tum Saath Ho. “When I heard him sing Photograph live, it hit me that I had opened for the person whose song I had once covered. It’s surreal that I have gone from covering his songs to sharing the stage with him,” shares the thrilled singer who opened for the Shape Of You singer at his Chennai show on Wednesday. She talks to us about the concert experience...
‘IT WAS COOL TO SEE THAT ED SHEERAN ALSO GETS NERVOUS’
I had met Ed Sheeran a few months ago in Mumbai. He played me some of the music from his upcoming album and I, too, played some of mine. This time around, he already knew who I was and expressed his gratitude as I was willing to do this. I was like, ‘What do you mean? Obviously, I’m excited to be part of your show’. He was even telling me that he was nervous as he was getting ready to release new music. It was cool to see that someone like him also gets nervous.
‘IT DIDN’T MATTER TO THE CROWD THAT ARABIC KUTHU DIDN’T BELONG IN THE SAME GENRE AS ED SHEERAN SONGS’
It was a crazy atmosphere at the concert. Initially, I was a little nervous because I wanted to sing my Tamil songs in Chennai. But I wasn’t sure whether the audience coming for an Ed Sheeran concert would want to hear that or if they would prefer only the English stuff. I even saw a reel where someone says, ‘I hope she sings Arabic Kuthu’ and another person replies, ‘I don’t think she will, because it’s an Ed Sheeran concert.’ The video then cuts to me singing Arabic Kuthu and the crowd going crazy. So, even the audience was feeling what I was feeling. We love fun songs like Arabic Kuthu and it didn’t matter to the crowd that they don’t belong in the same genre as Ed Sheeran songs. They come to have a good time and moments like these make me feel happy that people were there for me, too.
‘TO SHARE THE STAGE WITH ARTISTES WHOM I LOOK UP TO IS THE ICING ON THE CAKE’
The two artistes I got to open for — Ed Shereen and Dua Lipa — have both been my inspirations. To be able to share the stage with artistes whom I look up to is the icing on the cake. I didn’t feel that they were contacting me because they wanted to fill a slot in their show; it felt very intentional and personal. For instance, with the Dua Lipa concert, I was a good fit because my music is very pop. With this Chennai show, I do have a repertoire of English songs and have also sung a lot in Tamil. So, being chosen to open just felt right.