Vidya Iyer, better known by her stage nameVidya Vox, is an American YouTuber and singer. She was born in Chennai and immigrated with her family to the United States of America at the age of eight. Her music is a mix of Classical rappers, electronic dance music, and Indian classical music. Since beginning her channel in April 2015, her videos have received over 806 million views, and her channel has accumulated over 6.82 million subscribers.
Personal life
Vidya Iyer was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and was raised in Virginia in the United States. She speaks Tamil at home, learned Carnatic music from the age of 5, and also enjoyed listening to English music. Her entire family is from Palakkad, and her grandmother and mom grew up in Kerala. 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. 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. She with her sister Vandana Iyer and her friend Shankar Tucker whom she met in college collaborated for creating music. In 2017 she promoted her music, rehearsing bhangra and hip-hop dance.
Career
Vidya Iyer regularly sings in a band organized by Shankar Tucker. She has performed in various locations around the world, including the White House, National Centre for the Performing Arts, and Webster Hall. She has also performed at Festivals Des Artes in Reunion Island, INK Women, Suriname, Dubai and the Meru Concert Series in the Netherlands. Her most popular mashup was "Closer / Kabira",a mash up of Closer by Chainsmokers and Kabira from the Bollywood filmYeh Jawaani Hey Dewaani 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. She released "Kuttanadan Punjayile", a famous Kerala boat song, as a fusion along with an English song written by Shankar 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 Vidya Iyer.
