Jasleen Royal is keeping it real about a career moment that didn’t go quite as planned — and she’s doing it with grace, grit, and a whole lot of heart.
The Indian singer-songwriter recently opened up in the YouTube mini-documentary Dare to Dream, which premiered Sunday, April 6, about getting booed off stage while opening for Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres world tour in Mumbai back in January.
“There’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot to prove,” Royal says in a voiceover as the film kicks off, setting the tone for what was meant to be a huge milestone in her journey — and still is, even with the bumps along the way.
When Coldplay announced their return to India for the first time in nine years, fans snapped up tickets for the DY Patil Stadium shows in just 13 minutes.
And Royal, 33, was handpicked to be the first Indian artist to ever open for the globally loved rock band.
A dream? Absolutely. Nerve-racking? Oh, yes.
Leading up to the performance, she shared that her largest crowd until then had been around 30,000 — and DY Patil seats over 45,000.
“I think the universe was preparing me for this. The universe is giving me what I’ve asked for, and I need to prepare myself,” she reflected.
Royal made it clear that she didn’t take the opportunity lightly, expressing her gratitude to Coldplay and her hope to do right by her band, team, and manager.
“I hope they feel right about that decision,” she says in the doc.
But despite all the preparation, things took a turn the moment she stepped onto the stage on January 18.
Just a few notes into her first song, the crowd began booing — and the backlash didn’t stop there. Online criticism flooded in, including a viral Reddit post from Indian singer-composer Vishal Dadlani that fans believed was aimed at Royal.
“I’m really sorry, but when you put a basic-to-bad singer in front of a large crowd on a large stage, all you’re doing is showing more people that the individual can’t really sing,” Dadlani wrote.
“How embarrassing. For the country, the artiste, the public, and the scene.”
While the reaction was undoubtedly tough, Royal’s honest reflection in Dare to Dream paints a deeper picture.
In a heartfelt confessional, she admits that expressing her emotions through music has always been her strength, and she hoped the audience would feel “the same intensity, joy and emotion.”
