BENGALURU: The Youtube sensation Vidya Iyer, more popularly known as Vidya Vox, is now releasing her EP Kuthu Fire and is on a tour of six Indian cities to perform live.
She says kuthu is high energy Tamil folk songs. “My grandmother introduced me to it. I have grown up listening to Kuthu songs. Folk tradition in India is amazing. I want to bring the folk genre forefront with my originals,” she says adding that she’s proud of Indian folks. She shares she was not initially comfortable revealing her Indian identity after she shifted to US at the age of nine years. “I was bullied in middle school for the colour of my skin. So, I was not comfortable to say that I am an Indian. There weren’t too many Indians in my school then,” she recalls. She says she found more Indian friends and got associated with different groups during her high school and college. “I started embracing it. I joined Indian groups and was part of Hindu Student Association and South Asian Student Association in college. I would do banghra and all...I am proud of it,” she says.
Popular for her ingenious mashups, Vidya Vox has been mixing music of leading global artists. She has nearly 300 million views on YouTube with more than 3.5 million subscribers on her Vidya Vox channel. Vidya says each of her mashups are special to her. However creating one is not an easy task. “Some mashups work, some don’t. Sometimes, the mixing of songs wouldn’t be right. The tempo and beats of the songs you choose for a mashup should be similar. If you get all these right, sometimes the feel of the song you create might not be right. If it is a cover, I try to keep the feel of the song same as what the original composer intended.” She says she enjoys writing her original songs and as well as mashups with folk songs of different regions in India.
She says she has been working on her latest work, Kuthu Fire since June. Vidya was in the city to perform as part of her ‘Vidya Vox Kuthu Fire Tour’ sponsored by Forever 21.
Popular Vidya Vox mashups
Chainsmoker’s Closer and Kabira
Ellie Goulding’s Love Me Like You Do and Hosanna
Be Free (Pallivaalu Bhadravattakam) ft. Vandana Iyer
Justin Bieber’s Sorry and Kandukondain Kandukondain