Burrah and Annural Khalid Talk New Song ‘Mumtaaz’

Punjabi artist Burrah and Islamabad pop artist Annural Khalid team up for an anguished love story across borders on their new song “Mumtaaz.” The song is co-composed and co-written with Burrah’s go-to collaborator Youngveer and produced by Kathmandu beatsmith Foeseal.

Over a video call, Burrah listens to Annural speak about how she’s drawn to “sad love stories,” especially ones about “unfinished, unreciprocated love” and adds with a laugh, “We both turned out to be sadbois from within.” While Annural has been working with a few desi artists in the past – Talwiinder on “Conversation,” DRV on “Self Made” – Burrah states up front that he’s been a fan of her Coke Studio song “Jhol.”

He says about finding common ground with Annural, “It helps when you’re working with someone you’re a fan of. Then, you enter with your ego diminished. both of you are like an reciprocative to each other’s ideas and there’s an unconditionality there.”

It was at the start of 2024 that “Mumtaaz” began taking shape at composer-producer Sunny M.R.’s then-under-construction Chordfather Studios in Mumbai. At a songwriting camp organized by Warner Music India for Burrah’s upcoming full-length album, the Punjabi artist set up in a fairly empty room that had two speakers and not much else. Burrah was drawn to the energy and called in Youngveer, when the yearning chorus melody came to life. “Everyone came in the room and saw how this desolate-looking room had come to life with our song, in just 15 minutes. There were 5 or 6 people just dancing to the song by the end of it, so we knew it was a great song we had to make,” Burrah says.

Annural related to the song’s core message when she received the demo version via Warner Music India’s A&R. She says, “Everybody’s energies made this track so special.” Relating to the situation of unrequited love helped break the ice between the two artists. “This was very mutual and it all came naturally. Neither of us have egos like that, that also helped,” she says.

Having Annural on board made Burrah explore “more angles” to the song, including the Partition themes. He says, “In the first draft before Annural hopped on, it was a very therapeutical coping sort of song. I was just trying to process my own sort of heartbreak. I think I hit a wall somewhere in the making of the song. I felt like it was trapped in my ego. When Annural came in, I had a wake-up moment. I thought, ‘Let’s just make the story about heartbreak in Punjab.’”

He went on visualize – and later explain to his longtime video collaborator Adamya Pandey – a story of lovers torn apart due to the Partition and “circumstances beyond their control.” Burrah adds, “It’s dedicated to the probably one of the worst things that has happened to our nation in the recent history – like our lands getting divided because of some ego factor, and some sort of outer force we cannot comprehend.”

In the visualizer, things even go to a sci-fi level with a wormhole appearing, which is Burrah’s way of showing the void created due to the heartbreak.  He says, “I told Adamya that it’s about two lovers who have separated but have gone into their own void. They say heartbreak leads to that enlightenment within and maybe in that heartbreak, they become one, in that void. It’s like a sad union. It’s related to that intention of India and Pakistan – I feel like the folks in our two countries are living in that void of heartbreak and that’s why there’s hate, competitiveness and all that. Within, there’s fear because there’s no acceptance of that void that was created. I wanted to lay down that spiritual seed for the healing to begin between the two countries.”

Up next, Annural has more collaborations with “multiple Indian artists” and her solo album, which has been in the works for over a year. “There’s no point in overthinking it – the more you overthink, the more it stays with you,” she says.

Burrah also has a “very big LP” coming up next year. Before that, however, 2025 includes an EP slated to release by April (“It’s a deeper, slightly more vulnerable experience with me as an artist,” he says) and another collection of songs currently in the production stage.