Vidya Iyer (born September 26, 1990), better known by her stage nameVidya Vox, is an American YouTuber and singer.[2] She was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and immigrated with her family to the United States of America at the age of eight. According to NBC News, her music is a mix of "Western pop, electronic dance music, Bollywood hits, and Indian classical music."[2] Since beginning her channel in April 2015, her videos have received over 906 million views, and her channel has accumulated over 7 million subscribers.[2][4]
Personal life
Iyer was born in a Tamil family in Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India and was raised in Virginia in the United States.[5] Her family is from Palakkad, Kerala, and her mother and grandmother grew up in Kerala.[6] She speaks Tamil at home, learned Carnatic music from the age of 5, and also enjoyed listening to English music. She confessed to having an identity crisis, being bullied for being Indian, and hiding her culture while growing up, but has stated she "now feels proud" of her culture.[5]
She was inspired by her grandmother to pursue Indian classical music. She became confident of her Indian roots in college, joined the Indian Student Association, and joined Indian folk dance teams. She studied psychology and biomedical sciences at George Washington University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in biological sciences. She moved to India for two years to learn music.[2]
She collaborated on music with her sister, Vandana Iyer, and her boyfriend, Shankar Tucker, whom she met in college.[2] She also participates in bhangra and hip hop dance.[2]
Her most popular mashup was "Closer / Kabira", a mash up of Closer by Chainsmokers and Kabira from the Bollywood film Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani which clocked in over 55 million views in 7 months. One of her mashups is "Lean On" and "Jind Mahi", for which she had a collaboration with several other musicians, including Ricky Jatt, Raashi Kulkarni, and Roginder "Violinder" Momi.[10] She released "Kuttanadan Punjayile", a famous Kerala boat song, as a fusion along with an English song written by Tucker and herself, which was shot in Kerala with Mohiniyattam performed by Sreenidhi and Sreedevi. In 2016, she released her EP, Kuthu Fire, which was produced by Shankar Tucker, and co-written by Shankar Tucker and herself.[11][12][13]
Discography
Albums
2017: Kuthu Fire
2017: Diamonds
2019: Mad Dreams
2020: Thalaivi
2020: Butterfly
2021: lost in summer
2022: vanakam
References
^ ab"About". Vidya Vox. December 9, 2015. Archived from the original on October 25, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2017.