MUMBAI: Three successful singles down since 2020, Peekay is back with a fresh RnB/Pop tune with her favourite producer to collaborate with - Jonathan Edward. “You Don’t Have To” is a new “cliche” she is artistically poking fun at - insecure partners!

With the opening lines setting the tone with “You don’t have to call me, checking on me all the time...” - straight off the bat, the listener is drawn in because, let’s face it - we’ve all had one of those or been one of those!

The song is a low-key duet with Eddy’s male vocals cutting through in harmonies in such a way that the story is not something that is only relevant to a female protagonist but is being told with a male voice as well.
Set in a plastic, toy-like environment, Peekay’s artistic take on insecure partners is that their insecurity is a result of their own past wrong-doings and eventual guilt. Thus, the relationship turns both partners into puppets where they’re constantly pulling on each other’s strings, faking their emotions and practicing every move they make so no one gets hurt. A practiced & tired performance of continued re-assurance replaces genuine heartfelt moments and a repetitive dialogue of what happened mixed with the cliche “I forgive and still love you” - leads to an eventual emotional breakdown.

A collaboration with Hyderabad-based fashion line “Cancelled Plans” - the colours of the video were planned, based on toy structures and colours that represent envy, jealousy but also calm and happiness. Everything looks sunny & happy-go-lucky but Beneath the surface, it’s fairly grim. The dialogue and puppet-like movements are where Peekay is expressing her classic sarcasm.
Peekay is also a very popular artist in Hyderabad and therefore brought her illustration into the mix with a canvas she painted live during the shoot.

The canvas titled “All These Men” portrays the bearded men in her life who seem to have loomed over her (a small puppet-like creature in the foreground) like heavy weights and dark clouds. Again - the portrayal is so comic and funny that one sees the humour in the way she looks back on these times she’s telling the story of.

The primary story is based, of course, on stories she collected over a period of time via her Instagram interactions with her friends and fans and thus the story is ultimately everyone’s story and very relatable.
The single has also been featured on numerous official Spotify Editorial Playlists - .ORG (featuring the latest indie sounds from Asia), Fresh Finds : Wave (New R&B soul from Indie Artists), Fresh Finds India ( Peekay was on the cover of the playlist).

Additionally her track is added to youtube music playlist - New Indian Indie, she was on the cover of this playlist as well, the track got added to two Jio Saavn playlists and Rolling Stone India’s Spotify playlist - Hit List.

The track has become so popular it’s evident as it is being played on Redfm’s Indies Shuffle, Big fm - Shillong & Aizawl and Radicity. Now it is airing on Vh1 India TV channel also.
Peekay’s track ‘You Don’t Have To’’ can be streamed on all leading platforms.