"Holy" (Justin Bieber) with Indian Notes
A song that caught my attention last fall was Holy by Justin Bieber featuring Chance the Rapper. It has the catchy and optimistic I–V–vi–IV chord progression present in many pop songs (think “With or Without You” by U2, “Where is the Love” by the Black Eyed Peas, or the chorus of the “Let it Be” by The Beatles). Then there’s the appealing melodic line jumping between octaves, supported by gospel and R&B sounds to heighten the experience. When Chance enters the song, his rap flow blends seamlessly with the overall composition, adding further to the energy built up by the previous verses.
As I listened to this song on repeat, I started to hear Indian raga (scale) melodies as I often do. I furthermore saw a synergy in the lyrics with traditional Indian classical compositions. The lyrics of the song plays with a double meaning of holiness, that between a person and God, as well as a person and their lover. This is something very familiar to the spiritual practices of South Asia, whether it’s celebrating the bond between Krishna and his lover Radha as a metaphor for divine love (something I explored in my piece Radha’s Mistress), or Sufi poetry expressing the yearning for the divine with similar metaphors of lovers yearning for each other (here’s a great article on Punjabi Sufi poetry which explores this further). A lot of the repertoire in North Indian Classical (Hindustani) vocal music consists of lyrics exploring this divine duality.
Students of Indian music know that different ragas are often aesthetically associated with moods (known as Rasa) including devotion (Bhakti) or romantic love (Shringar). With “Holy”, Ragas like the Bhoopali, Pahadi , and Bihag came to my mind from a melodic perspective, and they also matched from a traditional aesthetic perspective. Bhoopali, a pentatonic scale that evokes devotion, matches the scale of Bieber’s lines
“The way you hold me…feels so holy…On God, Runnin' to the altar like a track star”.
Pahadi, literally meaning “of the mountains”, comes from folk tunes of South Asian cultures at the foothills of the Himalayas (Nepal, Kashmir), and evokes romantic love. In one writeup I’ve seen repeated across the Internet (source unknown), Pahadi has been described as “ like a lover, unruffled in union, serene in separation, powerful enough to achieve eternal union, but resigned to the painful parting ordained by destiny.” Raga Bihag also evokes romantic love.
In this version of “Holy”, I build upon my previous projects of All I Want for Christmas is You and Watermelon Sugar, singing the main melodies with Indian notes (Sargams—i.e. an Indian version of Do Re Mi Fa solfège) and articulating those notes with the nuances of Hindustani music. In the background I layered on improvised alaap (slow unmetered improvisation without words) based on Raga Pahadi along with taans (rapid melodic improvisation) alternating between Ragas Bihag and Bhoopali. The result is something that felt magical as I laid down the tracks and I hope you feel the same as you listen to it.