Vidya Vox

Last updated

Vidya Vox
Vidya Vox 2016 (cropped).png
Personal information
Born
Vidya Iyer

(1990-09-26) September 26, 1990 (age 33)
Madras, Tamil Nadu, India [1] [2]
NationalityAmerican [1]
Occupations
  • Musician
  • actress
  • YouTuber
  • vlogger
  • dancer
Website www.vidyavox.com
YouTube information
Also known asVidya Vox
Channel
Years active2015 – present
Genres
Subscribers7.63 million [3]
Total views1.19 billion [3]
Network Studio71
Associated acts Shankar Tucker, Arjun
YouTube Silver Play Button 2.svg100,000 subscribers2015
YouTube Gold Play Button 2.svg1,000,000 subscribers2016
Last updated: June 6, 2024

Vidya Iyer (born September 26, 1990), better known by her stage name Vidya 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]

Contents

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]

Career

Vidya Iyer regularly sings in a band organized by Tucker, along with percussionist Jomy George. [7] [8] She has performed in various locations around the world, including the White House, National Centre for the Performing Arts (India), and Webster Hall. She has also performed at Festivals Des Artes on Réunion; for INK Women; in Suriname; in Dubai, UAE; and at the Meru Concert Series in the Netherlands. [9]

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

2020: Butterfly 2021: lost in summer 2022: vanakam

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K. J. Yesudas</span> Indian singer

Kattassery Joseph Yesudas is an Indian playback singer and musician who sings Indian classical, devotional and film songs. He is widely considered one of the greatest singers in the history of Indian music and a cultural icon of Kerala. Yesudas is estimated to have recorded more than 50,000 songs in various Indian languages, including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Tulu, Hindi, Odia, Bengali, Marathi as well as Arabic, English, Latin, and Russian, in a career spanning six decades. He is often referred to as Gaanagandharvan. Yesudas holds the record for singing 11 songs in different languages in a single day. He has also composed a number of Malayalam film songs during the 1970s and 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vidya Balan</span> Indian film actress (born 1979)

Vidya Balan is an Indian actress. Known for pioneering a change in the portrayal of women in Hindi cinema with her roles in female-led films, she is the recipient of several awards, including a National Film Award and seven Filmfare Awards. She was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vasundhara Das</span> Indian actress and playback singer

Vasundhara Das is an Indian playback singer and former actress. Vasundhara's acting career includes Hey Ram (Tamil/Hindi), Monsoon Wedding (English), Citizen (Tamil), Ravana Prabhu (Malayalam), Lankesh Patrike (Kannada) and several others. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil for the song, "Shakalaka Baby" from the film Mudhalvan

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shankar Mahadevan</span> Indian singer (born 1967)

Shankar Mahadevan is an Indian singer and composer who is part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio that writes music for Indian films. In 2023, he was awarded a honorary doctorate by Birmingham City University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raai Laxmi</span> Indian actress, model

Lakshmi Rai, professionally credited as Raai Laxmi, is an Indian actress and model who predominantly works in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. M. Krishna</span> Carnatic Vocalist

Thodur Madabusi Krishna is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, writer, activist, author and Ramon Magsaysay awardee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mahalakshmi Iyer</span> Indian singer

Mahalakshmi Iyer is an Indian playback singer, best known for her Hindi, Assamese and Tamil songs. She has sung in many other Indian languages as well, including Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati and Kannada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">N. Rajam</span> Indian musician

N. Rajam is an Indian violinist who performs Hindustani classical music. She remained professor of music at Banaras Hindu University, eventually became head of the department and the dean of the Faculty of Performing Arts of the university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shweta Subram</span> Canadian singer

Kantimathi Subramanian Iyer, known professionally as Shweta Subram, is a Canadian playback singer, known for singing in the song "Jalebi Baby" (2020). She primarily sings in Hindi, as well as Punjabi, Sindhi, Tamil, English and other languages. Shweta is the recipient of multiple awards including the North American Best Singer award from Sangam Kala Group, and Best Singer Award from Shankar Mahadevan Academy's talent hunt, judged by Shankar Mahadevan himself. Shweta was an active participant in the International Indian Film Academy Awards (2011), performing with Bollywood music composer/director duo Salim–Sulaiman for IIFA Rocks in Toronto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natalie Di Luccio</span> Musical artist

Natalie Di Luccio is an Italian-Canadian classical-crossover singer from Toronto, Ontario. She is often referred to as "Bollywood's Soprano" because of her unique renditions of Indian classics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shankar Tucker</span> American clarinetist and music composer (born 1987)

Shankar Tucker is an American clarinetist and music composer. He rose to fame with the popularity of his YouTube music channel "The ShrutiBox".

<i>2 States</i> (2014 film) 2014 Indian film written and directed by Abhishek Varman

2 States is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy-drama film directed by Abhishek Varman and produced by Karan Johar and Sajid Nadiadwala. Based on Chetan Bhagat's 2009 novel of the same name with the story rewritten by Varman and Bhagat, the film stars Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt with Amrita Singh, Ronit Roy, Revathi and Shiv Kumar Subramaniam in supporting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arjun (singer)</span> Sri Lankan singer

Arjun Kumaraswamy is a Sri Lankan-British singer and actor. He was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka and raised in London. He sings in English, Tamil, Sinhalese, Hindi, Punjabi, and Spanish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shilpa Natarajan</span> Musical artist

Shilpa Natarajan is an independent acoustic singer-songwriter and a playback singer and was a music presenter on Chennai Live 104.8FM, based in Chennai, India. In 2015 she performed with the Beef Sappad Trio. She is an ATCL diploma graduate in Western Classical Music (Performance).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonita Gandhi</span> Canadian singer (born 1989)

Jonita Gandhi is a Canadian singer of Indian descent. She has recorded songs predominantly in Hindi and Tamil languages with few in Punjabi, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada and Malayalam languages. Some of her most acclaimed songs include "The Breakup Song", "Mental Manadhil", "Chellama" and "Arabic Kuthu". She is also well known for her YouTube presence. Her singing debut started through Chennai Express in 2013.

Gayathiri Venkatagiri is an Indian actress and model from Tamilnadu, and was bought up in Kochi, Kerala, who has acted predominantly in Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Bengali films.

<i>Begum Jaan</i> 2017 Indian film by Srijit Mukherji

Begum Jaan is a 2017 Indian Hindi period drama film. It is directed and co-written by National Film Award-winning director Srijit Mukherji in his Hindi directional debut and produced by Mukesh Bhatt, Vishesh Bhatt and Play Entertainment. The film is co-produced by Sakshi Bhatt and Shree Venkatesh Films with executive producer Kumkum Saigal. The cinematography is done by Gopi Bhagat. Lyrics, additional screenplay and dialogues have been penned by Kausar Munir and Rahat Indori.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chitra Iyer</span> Indian Musician

Chitra Iyer is an Indian playback singer who has worked in Indian and Italian films across five different industries primarily in Malayalam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kavya Ajit</span> Indian playback singer

Kavya Ajit is an Indian singer, violinist and a live performer born in Kozhikode, Kerala. Apart from Malayalam, she has recorded songs in many Indian languages including Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. Having trained in Carnatic Classical Music and Western classical style of Violin, she has performed in concerts and stage shows across the world.

Arthana Binu is an Indian actress who works in Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu film industries. Coming from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, she made her debut in the 2016 Telugu film Seethamma Andalu Ramayya Sitralu. She is known for films such as Mudhugauv (2016), Thondan (2017), Semma (2018) and Kadaikutty Singam (2018).

References

  1. 1 2 "About". Vidya Vox. December 9, 2015. Archived from the original on October 25, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Luhar, Monica (November 17, 2017). "As a kid, Vidya Vox hid her Indian roots. Now, her music merges India and the U.S." NBC News. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  3. 1 2 "About VidyaVox". YouTube.
  4. ↑ "Be Free (Pallivaalu Bhadravattakam) ft. Vandana Iyer". YouTube . Retrieved July 30, 2019.
  5. 1 2 "Vidya Vox proud to be Indian in America". IANS . November 22, 2017. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  6. ↑ Jaames, Merin Maria (January 17, 2016). "Stylish makeover for Malayalam folk song". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  7. ↑ Sreenivasan, Deepthi (July 14, 2016). "Black or brown, Jomy George is a maestro". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on September 11, 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  8. ↑ Khan, Farah (April 28, 2016). "Vidya Vox Returns to Her Roots With Latest 'Jodhaa Akbar'-Adele Mashup". India.com. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  9. ↑ "The mashup star". The Hindu. August 21, 2015. Retrieved August 21, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Singer Vidya Vox on Blending two Musical Worlds: East and West". India.com. January 8, 2016. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  11. ↑ "The Famous Kerala Boat Song 'Kuttanadan Punjayile' Just Got A New Twist And It Sounds Awesome". The Huffington Post. January 13, 2016. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Vidya and Shankar Tucker gives Kerala's favourite boat song 'Kuttanadan Punjayile' a classic twist". India Today. January 14, 2016. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Stylish makeover for Malayalam folk song". Deccan Chronicle. January 17, 2016. Retrieved January 17, 2015.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.