Before she ever stepped into a recording booth, Kiran Mani was on track to become a doctor. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she spent her college years buried in pre-med textbooks and philosophy essays at Boston College, chasing a version of success that never quite felt like her own. Music was the quiet rebellion that kept tugging at her—until graduation, when she made her move. Instead of applying to med school, she sent an application to Berklee College of Music, a pivot that rewrote not just her future, but her identity.
At Berklee, Kiran began to shape a sound that reflects the complexity of her background. Rooted in sleek R&B and dark pop, her music is layered with echoes of the Indian classical melodies and Bollywood orchestration she grew up hearing at home. She doesn’t treat those influences as decoration—they’re structural, woven into her harmonies, phrasing, and rhythm. “Music, like identity, is built,” she says. “I like to engineer worlds other people can step into.” The result is atmospheric, emotionally charged pop that hits with both intention and imagination.
But the industry tested that resolve early. After college, Kiran took a job at a major label in Los Angeles—an insider’s introduction to the machinery behind corporate music. For three and a half years, she played ball with a toxic boss who kept promising her a promotion to manager if she just kept doing the work and taking on more and more responsibilities. Eventually, she realized those promises were empty—and that standing up for herself was the only way forward. That revelation became one of the biggest catalysts for writing “Let Them Eat Cake.”
That conviction fueled a turning point. Kiran recorded a cover of “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish, not as a career move but as catharsis—a way of taking back control of her story. The recording resonated online, not because of algorithm magic, but because it felt lived-in and raw. It marked the beginning of Kiran Mani as a fully independent artist—unfiltered and unapologetic.
Now she’s stepping forward with original work that refuses to play small. Her upcoming single, “Let Them Eat Cake,” is a sharp, cinematic pop record with teeth. Over hypnotic production, she flips a line from the French Revolution into a modern anthem about gender wage inequality, calling out double standards with a smirk and a middle finger. It’s bold. It’s clever. And it sets the tone for what’s coming next: her debut album.
For Kiran Mani, this chapter isn’t just about music—it’s reclamation. She walked away from expectations, survived the industry machine, and came out with a voice that doesn’t wait to be invited inside. It creates its own space.
Kiran isn’t chasing approval anymore—she’s building an empire brick by brick, hook by hook, truth by truth.
