Rapper Raja Kumari becomes the first Indian musician to receive an American Music Award

Singer-songwriter and rapper Raja Kumari, of Indian descent, wins an American Music Award (AMA) on Tuesday. She received a nomination for Arcane League of Legends: Season 2 during the 51st AMA event in Los Angeles on Monday evening.

In a previous interview, Raja stated that she was the first musician of Indian heritage to receive a nomination for an AMA. Renegade (We Never Run) from Arcane League of Legends, a partnership involving Kumari, UK hip-hop musician Stefflon Don, and Dominican-Brazilian artist Jarina de Marco, received a nomination in the Favourite Soundtrack category.

Raja told PTI that the song was really special for her. “Stefflon (Don) and I kind of share the Sidhu (Moose Wala) connection. She has a song with Sidhu, too. And when I was meeting Sidhu during the time that we were collaborating, he had played me the song. So, I’ve always had this soft spot in my heart for her because we both kind of share this gentle giant,” Raja told PTI.

She said she was approached for the song because the character in the film is Indian. “They (Arcane team) had heard about me as being representative of our culture and being able to make aggressive music as a woman,” added Raja.

She said she never really expected the song to become such a big hit. “The song actually went top 10 in the world on the ‘Viral 50’ charts on Spotify. It was something that kind of came out of nowhere. I just did a song for a film. I didn’t have many expectations for it. It ended up really impacting people,” said Raja.

The AMA nomination, added the rapper, came at a time when she was beginning to believe that perhaps one has to focus on one genre to make it big. “And I’ve always been a global artist, so an AMA award is a great reminder that there’s still much more work for me to do, and still much more for me to impact and grow,” she added.