So, Nataal couldn’t think of anyone more fitting to celebrate International Women’s Day with in collaboration with Valentino and FARFETCH [See our menswear story with Tommy Gold here]. Here, Priya wears joyful catwalk looks from Valentino’s SS22 collection. Anyone who has seen her videos will know Priya has a directional style and as such, enjoys Valentino’s gender-neutral silhouettes in liberating colours and mini-maxi proportions. “In the day time, it’s about comfort when I’m working as an artist, it’s different. I’m open minded and willing to try new things,” she shares. “Even though I’m not really a fashion girl, I feel like I have an eye for fashion, especially in the way I dress for videos and fashion shoots with a lot of layers and colours. I really like that.”

Priya’s journey began in a small town in Switzerland, where her parents moved after fleeing civil war in their native Sri Lanka. She started playing violin aged 11 and her family introduced her to the sounds of home from an early age. “My father was musically talented but never had the chance to pursue it because of the war and having to provide for his family. He started having jam sessions in our house at weekends and all the aunties and uncles would come over. We’d sing together and my brother [her now producer Japhna Gold] would play the keys. Mostly it was Tamil cinema songs. Then he created a band and we played at birthdays and weddings. That’s how I discovered that I had a voice.”

As she grew older, she began to explore other sounds, her first love being Lauryn Hill, and from there legendary soul singers such as Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder. “Where I was born and raised, I was one of the few Brown people in town so that helped me to relate to Black music. It somehow spoke to my soul,” she says. It was through these songs that Priya learnt to speak – and sing – in English. “I wasn’t really sure what they were saying but I wrote the lyrics down and recorded them myself. But my parents weren’t supportive of me singing western music. They’d say, ‘Who is going to marry you if you’re performing on stages and being surrounded by drinking and smoking?’.”

She went on to study business and work for an airline as a technical purchasing agent. Music became the side hustle, performing at open mics and in a two-person band doing Hiatus Kaiyote and Raphael Saadiq covers. “I had a very comfortable and safe life. But it got to the point that I felt I would be dumb if I didn’t use my talent. So, I quit my job and focussed on writing songs for six months. At first, I lacked confidence. Nobody ever broke out internationally in Switzerland. Plus, I was making R&B music and singing in English so the audience was even smaller. There were a lot of things against me but I did it anyway. I thought it would take me a few albums to get where I am now. In fact, it’s taken me four songs.”

Since hitting the scene in 2020, those songs have been championed by BBC Radio 1, seen her profiled in Vogue and led to a performance on Later… With Jools Holland to name just a few highlights. “‘Good Love 2.0’ is inspired by my parents’ love story. They broke barriers of religion and caste in order to be together and they’re still happy after all these years,” she says of her first single. “And ‘Chicken Lemon Rice’ is about celebrating diversity. I want people to feel uplifted when they listen to this song. The chorus is about dancing and being in the moment, which is very meditative. That’s when we all connect and become one.”

It's her single ‘Kamali’ that most resonates with the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day - #BreakTheBias. “It’s about a young girl from Mahabalipuram in southern India who is a really talented skateboarder. She was raised by a single mother who has always told her, ‘Whatever you want to achieve in life, I’ll always have your back. If skating is what you love, let’s go for it.’ She started skating aged six and she’s become really successful now [aged 12]. There’s even a documentary about her. So that inspired me to write this song. I want to speak to all the Kamilis in the world to tell them to follow their dreams and believe in themselves.”

It’s no wonder that fans that look like her have been flocking to her concerts so far. It’s not since M.I.A. that a Tamil woman has broken through to the global stage, and with such inspiring force. “I get a lot of DMs from listeners who say that they can relate to my songs. And when I did my European tour last November, it was all Brown girls in the front of the stage cheering. I saw their glowing expressions when we played the songs, which was really amazing.” Add to that the fact that M.I.A. slipped into your DMs as well. “When she messaged me, I saw all my embarrassing messages to her in the previous years. She just told me that she loves the music and the style and to keep up the good work.”

Priya is spending spring doing her first US shows, touring with Jungle and promoting her latest single ‘Illuminous’, which is perhaps her most swag release yet. The slick track hears her mix braggadocious rapping with honeyed vocals over twinkling notes and a pacey rhythm that sounds destined to soar. It’s familiar and accessible yet her Tamil twist remains unmistakable. “It’s very melancholic in a way, and very rhythmic. I have a deep emotional connection to it,” she says of her heritage sound. “Whenever and wherever I listen to Tamil music, I feel at home. When I was young, I saw it as my parents’ music but as I got older, the more I understood composers like Ilaiyaraaja and A.R. Rahman. It’s funny, the other day my father pointed out that A.R. Rahman brought western music into Tamil cinema and now me and my brother are doing the opposite. I was like, that’s deep dad!”

‘Illuminous’ by Priya Ragu is out now on Warner Music