Zeba Tommy’s voice has recently found a vast new audience through 'Queen of the Night', the brooding track that pulses at the heart of the record-breaking Malayalam blockbuster Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra. Penned and sung by her, with music composed by Jakes Bejoy, it channels the torment of the titular Chandra, a vampire who has lived with loneliness across centuries. The track has placed Zeba in the spotlight, giving her both recognition and affirmation as a singer-songwriter. “I’m really happy with the response because it was something I honestly didn’t expect,” she says, adding, “The song was released a couple of weeks after the film came out, so there was a bit of a gap."
Even before the track found its way onto streaming platforms, it had begun to breathe on its own. In theatres, as Kalyani Priyadarshan’s Chandra first encounters Naslen’s Sunny, audiences fell into a trance, suspended in the moment. Some returned for repeat viewings just to feel it again. “I think everything just came together in that song,” Zeba reflects.
Her entry into Lokah was shaped by familiarity and trust. “This turned out to be my fourth film with Jakes ettan after Kalki, Garudan and Officer on Duty,” she notes. “He gave me a brief and asked if I could write the lyrics, and I said I would love to give it a try. Soon after, director Dominic Arun also called and shared more about the story and what he wanted from the song lyrically. Even though the film is about this larger superhero aspect, my song was meant to give a little more perspective on the character, not focusing on the powers but on the emotional side of her life. That was how I approached it.”
What surprised her most was the way listeners reinterpreted her lyrics after the release. A seemingly simple line, 'just another day, another place,' became layered with meaning once audiences connected it to Chandra’s eternal cycle of loss. Zeba herself had not been told about that dimension of the story. “Dominic did not brief me on Chandra’s backstory, about how she was familiar with Sunny’s face because she once had a lover a century ago who looked like him,” she explains. “For me, that line was about her being stuck in a loop, going through the same cycle in another time, another place, another day. But after the film was released, people started interpreting it in different ways, and I thought that was very cool.”
If 'Queen of the Night' has been a moment of recognition, it is built upon years of patient effort. Zeba’s initiation into music began at six, with Carnatic training, before she expanded into Western forms as a teenager. “Career-wise, I think the thought that I could actually do this as a profession started forming around high school,” she says. By then, she was already singing chorus parts for Gopi Sundar’s background scores and fronting her own band. “My parents were always very supportive from the beginning, and that made a huge difference.”
Her move to Mumbai brought her Bollywood debut. While pursuing a music production course, she was offered the chance to work on the trailers and promotional materials for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Netflix series Heeramandi. “I did the full vocals as well as the vocal designing. I also got to attend the premiere, which was amazing because I was able to meet so many big Bollywood names. That was a very cool moment for me.” Since then, her voice has travelled further, with test recordings for Amit Trivedi and Ram Sampath, each offering glimpses of future possibilities.
Some listeners, drawn by her popular Western-toned playback songs, imagine her confined to that style. She resists such categorisation. “Songs like 'Neon Ride' (Officer on Duty) or 'Queen of the Night' have become popular. But if you really look into my discography, there are many other kinds of songs I have sung in films like Am Ah, Philips and Pookkaalam. Of course, in the future, I would never want to stick to just one style. I have never seen myself that way, and I would never want to box myself in.”
That same spirit drives her independent music. She has already released two singles, including 'Daydream', with a third on the horizon. “Independent writing and releasing my own music is something I have wanted to do for a very long time,” she explains. “The third one is almost ready, and I am planning to make a music video for it, which I will be shooting in Kochi next month.” She sees the landscape for non-film music shifting in encouraging ways. “People are much more receptive now. In India, there was not much space for it earlier, and it was limited to niche listeners. But now opportunities are increasing, and our generation is far more open to it. I just hope this trend continues and keeps growing.”
Her influences mirror her eclectic journey: Shreya Ghoshal, Adele and Whitney Houston. “It kept changing over time, along with my taste and listening style,” she says. “Now I would say it is a mix of many different things. I do not listen to just one band, and I always try to expand my taste and listen as much as I can.”
With more film work waiting, Zeba stands at a point where possibilities branch out in many directions. She welcomes that uncertainty, knowing that each new song brings with it a fresh beginning, just another day, another place.