Photo: Rolling Stone India
Mary Ann Alexander didn't choose R&B so much as recognize it. She'd grown up around Malayalam film music, Tamil soundtracks, and the rhythm of the language itself in a household where her father worked as a playback singer — and when she discovered artists like Alina Baraz, Brent Faiyaz, and Hiatus Kaiyote as a teenager, something about the genre's specific brand of vulnerability just fit. "I have a lot of big feelings and emotions," she's said of why R&B, of every genre available to her, was the one she gravitated toward.
That instinct has taken her from a studio-kid childhood in Thiruvananthapuram to a Bengaluru-based career built on unreleased Instagram snippets that go viral before the songs even exist officially, a surprise Sid Sriram feature she wasn't warned about until the day of the shoot, collaborations with UK producers who've worked with Doja Cat and Olivia Dean, and a spot on Rolling Stone India's Future 25. This is how a studio kid who never really had to decide what she wanted to do built a genuinely distinct voice in Indian R&B.
Key takeaways
- Mary Ann Alexander grew up in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala, in a household where her father worked as a playback singer in the Malayalam film industry — she was present at professional recording sessions from a very young age
- Her first original song, "Over the Ocean," written around age 15, was discovered by filmmaker T.K. Rajeev Kumar and used in the 2021 Malayalam film "Kolambi"
- She's built a reputation for teasing unreleased music on Instagram Reels — a habit Rolling Stone India's Future 25 profile specifically called out, describing her as "courting viral fame with unreleased song snippets"
- Her debut EP, "Love or a Lesson," released independently in March 2026 via UnitedMasters, features production from UK-based Linden Jay (known for his work with Doja Cat) and Matt Zara (an Olivia Dean collaborator)
- She was named to Rolling Stone India's Future 25 in 2025, a profile built around a Sanjeev T collaboration, "Take My Life With You," that featured a surprise Sid Sriram verse she found out about on shoot day
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The Starting Point: Growing Up Inside a Recording Studio
Mary Ann Alexander's introduction to music wasn't a lesson — it was osmosis. Her father worked as a playback singer in the Malayalam film industry, and as an only child in an artistic household, she was around professional recording sessions from roughly age five, absorbing the mechanics of studio work — mic technique, takes, the discipline of "just standing still, singing correctly, delivering everything right" — before she had any framework for calling it a career. "I was surrounded by people who, without knowing, inspired me to be who I am," she's said of that upbringing.
She attended Carmel Convent School in Trivandrum and later went to St Joseph's College in Bengaluru, where she earned a degree in Visual Communication — a path that had nothing to do with a specific plan to sing professionally. What changed that was almost incidental: at 15, she wrote a song called "Over the Ocean," which found its way to filmmaker T.K. Rajeev Kumar and ended up featured in his 2021 Malayalam film "Kolambi." It wasn't a campaign for a music career. It was a teenager's song that happened to land in front of the right person.
Finding R&B, and a Manager Who Pushed Her to Write
Alexander's move into R&B specifically came through discovery rather than instruction — she found Alina Baraz, Brent Faiyaz, Drake, and Hiatus Kaiyote through friends as a teenager, layering them onto a musical foundation that already included Michael Jackson, Hindi and Tamil film scores, and Tibetan recordings she'd grown up around. She's described what drew her to the genre in blunt terms: "I have a lot of big feelings and emotions," and R&B, more than anything else she'd been exposed to, gave her permission to write from that place directly.
After college, she taught vocals at the Trill Route School of Contemporary Music — a day job that turned out to matter more than a paycheck. It's where she met Sange Wangchuk, then a drum instructor at the school and now her manager, who pushed her toward writing original material rather than staying in a teaching role. His approach was direct: "I have booked you a gig in two weeks. Can you write yourself a set?" That kind of forced deadline, rather than open-ended inspiration, is how she's described her actual creative process ever since: "Don't wait for some divine source to come to you — you have to be able to sit down and do it diligently."
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A Sid Sriram Feature She Found Out About on Shoot Day
The moment Rolling Stone India's Future 25 profile centers on is a collaboration with producer Sanjeev T, on a song called "Take My Life With You" for his lo-fi project Future, shot on a hill outside Bengaluru. What made it a genuine surprise for Alexander was learning, only once they arrived to film, that the track's second verse featured R&B, Carnatic, and film playback singer Sid Sriram — a name whose vocal style has often been used as a reference point for her own sound. "First of all, he only told me when we're shooting," she's said. "I'm like, 'Are you kidding me?'"
Performing the resulting material live gave her a moment of clarity about the career she'd more or less backed into. Reflecting on singing her song "Adiye" on stage, she's said simply: "This is what I want to do."
Photo: ETV Bharat
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Teasing Songs Before They Exist
The habit that Rolling Stone India built its tagline around — "the R&B diva courts viral fame with unreleased song snippets" — is a deliberate strategy, not an accident. Alexander regularly posts fragments of unfinished songs to Instagram Reels, sometimes for months before (or without ever) releasing the finished version. She's aware of the reputation this has earned her: "I feel kind of bad that I have a reputation for not releasing the songs that I tease people with on Instagram," she's admitted — but she doesn't treat the platform as a liability. "I cannot stand people who villainize social media," she's said. "It's the biggest superpower right now."
Mary Ann Alexander, on her roots showing up in her music without having to announce them: "My roots are part of me, I don't need to wave a flag about it for them to show." (ETV Bharat, November 2025)
That instinct extends to how she talks about her Malayali identity in her music more broadly. Rather than leaning on obvious markers, she's described it as something that surfaces naturally in the emotional texture of her songwriting: "Music was just around me. The stories, the songs, the rhythm of Malayalam itself... it all seeps in."
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Love or a Lesson: Going Independent With International Collaborators
Alexander's debut EP, "Love or a Lesson," released independently in March 2026 through UnitedMasters — a distribution platform that lets artists keep ownership of their masters rather than sign to a traditional label. The project brought in collaborators well outside the usual pool for an Indian independent artist: London-based producer Linden Jay, known for his work with Doja Cat, and Matt Zara, an Olivia Dean collaborator, both contributed production to the EP and to her subsequent June 2026 single "Too Much?" She's been selective about who she works with, by design: "I don't like working on music with other people unless I actually admire them," she's said.
Several outlets covering her career have also pointed to guidance from Anderson .Paak and an association with Craig David as part of her development — claims that surface consistently enough in profile coverage to be worth noting, though the specifics of that mentorship haven't been laid out in a direct statement from Alexander or either artist. What she has spoken to directly is what she takes from watching more established artists work: describing what stood out from time spent around Paak, she's said, "What stood out most was how much fun he has with music. His energy is contagious."
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A Catalogue Built Song by Song, Genre Reference by Genre Reference
Beyond the EP, Alexander's catalogue includes solo singles like "In My Zone" (produced by Pranay Parti), "Bling Bling," "The Lovey Dovey Song," "Good Girl," and "Student of Love," alongside soundtrack placements including "Sthuthi" (from the Malayalam film "Bougainvillea," composed by Sushin Shyam) and "Ulfat" (from "CTRL," produced by Sneha Khanwalkar) — her first Hindi-language recorded song. She's performed at BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender in Pune, and has described her approach to genre as deliberately unrestricted rather than a strict homage to any single era: she pulls from "everything," she's said, rather than confining herself to a 90s/00s R&B aesthetic, while still admiring how older R&B artists "weren't afraid of their feelings or of being borderline corny while expressing their love."
She's also been candid about what her creative process actually requires from her personally: "I do really well for myself when I'm alone and have a lot of solitude," she's said — a preference that runs somewhat against the collaborative, features-heavy shape of a lot of her recent catalogue, and one she's clearly had to negotiate around rather than avoid.
What Other Independent Artists Can Take From Mary Ann Alexander's Approach
A childhood spent around professional work is its own apprenticeship. Alexander didn't take formal vocal lessons growing up — she learned studio discipline by being present in her father's sessions, absorbing craft before she ever framed it as a career choice.
Building anticipation can be a strategy, not just a personality trait. Her reputation for teasing unreleased material isn't accidental — Rolling Stone India built an entire profile angle around it, and she's leaned into social media as a tool rather than apologizing for using it.
A distribution deal isn't the same as a label deal, and the difference matters. Releasing "Love or a Lesson" through UnitedMasters kept ownership of her masters in her own hands while still giving the project real reach and international production credits.
Selectivity about collaborators protects a sound's identity. Alexander has been explicit that she only works with people she genuinely admires — a filter that's kept her catalogue coherent even as it's expanded to include UK producers and Carnatic-trained playback singers.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Mary Ann Alexander?
Mary Ann Alexander is an Indian R&B singer-songwriter from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, now based in Bengaluru. Raised in a household where her father worked as a Malayalam playback singer, she began writing music as a teenager and was named to Rolling Stone India's Future 25 in 2025.
What is Mary Ann Alexander's debut EP?
Her debut EP, "Love or a Lesson," was released independently in March 2026 through UnitedMasters, with production from UK-based collaborators Linden Jay (known for work with Doja Cat) and Matt Zara (an Olivia Dean collaborator).
How did Mary Ann Alexander's music career start?
She wrote her first original song, "Over the Ocean," around age 15. It was discovered by filmmaker T.K. Rajeev Kumar and featured in his 2021 Malayalam film "Kolambi" — an early break that predates her decision to formally pursue music as a career.
Has Mary Ann Alexander worked with Sid Sriram?
Yes. She's featured alongside Sid Sriram on producer Sanjeev T's track "Take My Life With You," a collaboration she didn't know about in advance — she learned Sriram was on the song only on the day of the video shoot.
What does Mary Ann Alexander sing about?
Her songwriting draws on R&B, jazz, and soul influences layered over a childhood spent around Malayalam and Tamil film music. She's described being drawn to R&B specifically because of the genre's emotional directness, saying she has "a lot of big feelings and emotions" that the genre gives her room to express.
Mary Ann Alexander's career doesn't trace back to a single deliberate decision to become a singer — it traces back to a childhood spent standing in the corner of her father's recording sessions, absorbing a craft before she had a name for it. Everything since, from a teenage song that landed in a film by accident to a surprise Sid Sriram feature to production credits from collaborators who've worked with Doja Cat, reads less like a plan executed and more like an instinct that kept turning out to be right.
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