Aditya Rikhari Says Emotional Connection, Not Technical Perfection, Will Guide His Mentorship on I-POPSTAR Vol. 2

Singer-songwriter Aditya Rikhari is gearing up for his role as a mentor on I-POPSTAR Vol. 2, and he's made it clear he isn't hunting for the most technically polished voices in the room. What he's really after is something harder to teach - music that hits you in the chest before your brain has time to catch up.

Ask him what he'll be scouting for on his team, and Aditya doesn't hesitate. "Personally, I would look for artists whose melodies and writing touch your heart. At the end of the day, what do we want? We want a song that touches your heart and that you genuinely like," he says.

It's a philosophy rooted in how he believes most people actually experience music - not as critics dissecting every note, but as listeners simply reacting. "You don't necessarily sit down and analyse exactly what was good about it or why you liked it. You simply hear the song and feel that it is good," he explains.

That instinct is exactly what he plans to bring to his mentor's chair. "I am going to keep it very simple. If the song feels good to your heart, then the artist feels good to you," he says, boiling down his entire judging criteria to one simple gut check.

Beyond his own role, Aditya is upbeat about the boom in music reality shows overall, seeing it as a genuine win for emerging talent. More platforms, he says, mean more chances for undiscovered artists to reach audiences who might never have stumbled onto their music otherwise.

This season also ups the stakes by pushing contestants to write original songs against the clock - a format twist Aditya is particularly excited about. With fresh music taking centre stage, he's curious to see how each artist handles the pressure and whether their individual sound survives the crunch.

At the end of the day, Aditya isn't betting on the most technically flawless performer to win people over. He's betting on whoever can make an audience stop scrolling, actually listen, and feel something real. To him, that's the difference between a good singer and an artist people remember.