Vidya Vox

“Music has been my way of expressing what I've been feeling.”

“It's very natural for me to sing in English and have a tabla in an arrangement, to have hip-hop beats but sing in Tamil. It's very niche but I love doing it.”

“You can't please everyone.”

“It's okay, it's cool to be Indian and there are cool people that are Indian and doing really well. It's okay to be brown and cool.”

“Music was my solace, my refuge.”

“I think in the world of Internet trolls, people can shake your confidence really easily, with just one comment. As long as you can stand behind your work, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks!”

“There's no longevity on YouTube. You have to keep pushing boundaries.”

“I've gotten to perform in the most beautiful places, like the Nourse Theatre in San Francisco.”

“YouTube is amazing because you really don't have to wait for anyone to showcase your work. Social media in general is like that. People can connect with it all over the world.”

“Growing up in Virginia, I was surrounded by two different cultures.”

“Music is so subjective and personal, I don't expect people to like everything I do. But that's life and you have to live unapologetically.”

“I never thought being a musician would be something I could make a career out of.”

“The money I earn from a live show is divided into two parts. One section goes towards producing my music videos, and the other goes into my savings.”

“When I launched my channel, I felt I was ready to do this. It's not that I had learnt everything - because as an artiste you never stop learning, but I was ready to put out my voice in the world.”

“I find it difficult to talk about myself. I'm just shy.”

“By the time I went to college, I had totally embraced my Indianness, but I still didn't tell anyone I could sing.”

“It might sound corny, but honestly, it's worth staying true to your voice. It'll get you places.”

“I grew up on Queen, ABBA and at the same time, Nityasree.”

“I was bullied when I was in middle school in D.C., especially for being an Indian, because there weren't many Indian kids in school. And because of that, I tended to hide my Indian culture, but that changed by the end of high school. Now, I am 100% proud of it.”

“Growing up, I had a bit of an identity crisis.”