‘Amputate The Fake’: Shilpa Ananth's New Single Is A Declaration Of Radical Authenticity
This article explores Shilpa Ananth’s new single, 'AMPUTATE THE FAKE', a track that blends English and Tamil to explore authenticity, and challenge the pressures of performance placed on women artists. It traces how the UAE-based singer-songwriter, known for fusing South Indian classical music with soul, R&B, jazz, and electronic textures, uses this release to articulate a moment of personal and creative reclamation.
Indian singer-songwriter Shilpa Ananth, now based in the UAE, has spent the past few years reshaping global soul with a blend of South Indian classical traditions, modern R&B, jazz, and electronic textures. Her work is defined by a commitment to radical authenticity and a steady push against the expectations placed on women artists — sonically, visually, and personally. That ethos shines through her new English–Tamil single, AMPUTATE THE FAKE. Framed as an act of shedding illusion and reclaiming truth, the track channels her refusal to be boxed in, labelled, or softened to fit anyone else’s idea of who she should be
The track grew out of a personal turning point. “I wrote this song to describe the feeling of putting down our external masks, freeing our most authentic selves, and letting go of what didn’t serve us,” Shilpa says. She speaks about holding on to her dreams, defending her own name, and resisting the pushback that so often greets artists; especially women who do not fit the mould. “I no longer wish to be put into a box or labelled in a way that makes others feel comfortable," she notes. "This song marks the moment where I am letting go of the need to find a sense of belonging, especially if it means I need to conform to a mind view I don’t believe in.”
Sonically, the track delivers that resolve with warm, textured confidence. Deep bass grooves, layered harmonies, and Tona’s soulful flugelhorn riffs anchor a soundscape that moves between soul, R&B, jazz, and hip-hop. There is a clear lineage derived from Victoria Monét, Kimbra, Hiatus Kaiyote, Erykah Badu, Priya Ragu, A.R. Rahman, but the result sits firmly in Shilpa’s own lane, a contemporary Tamil-soul blend with hip-hop.
On December 4, Shilpa performed a collaborative Opening Ceremony set with Input/Output at XP Music Futures in Saudi Arabia, followed later in the week by a duo set with Beatbox Ray. The release came shortly after her Helipad performance in Dubai and followed a global run that has taken her from Carnegie Hall to the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
The accompanying music video, directed by Suruchi Sharma (Studio Ainak), extends the song’s core question: What is real, and what have we been trained to perform? Built with AI-driven imagery, it deliberately unsettling, mirroring the instability of a world obsessed with appearances. By blurring digital and physical textures, it reflects the tension between authenticity and artifice that the song seeks to cut through. As Shilpa puts it, “AMPUTATE THE FAKE is an act of release — a call to amputate the fake and awaken the real.”
Follow Shilpa here and watch the music video at the top of the page.
