Swiss Review / December 2021 / No.6 15 STÉPHANE HERZOG Priya Ragu appears on our computer screen dressed in a grey sweatshirt and sipping a coffee. Themusician, aged 35, politely agrees to the interview, organised by the Warner group, with whom she signed in August 2020. The singer has been giving one interviewafter the other in the context of the release of her first album in September. “Damnshestamil” offers ten bright and lively pop songs, crossed with the sounds of South Asia. “When a girl says she’s from Brazil, people find that cool.When I say I’mTamil, people don’t associate it with anything. It’s not glam!” the rising start tells us, laughing. Priya’s husky yet smoothvoicehas thrilled listeners, withhundreds of themdeclaring their love for her on social media. “She mixes the sounds of two completely separate worlds. No one makes music like her,” states one message postedunder themusic video for the song “Kamali”, which has almost half a million views on YouTube. A childhood between two worlds Priya Ragu has already overcome a succession of barriers that render her success all the more impressive. She is female, she is the daughter of refugee parents, she has brown skin, she grewup in a very conservativeworld and shemade her breakthrough at a late age. “I only see the barriers I’ve broken through when I look behind me,” comments the singer fromher flat in London. This is the story of a girl born into a family of refugees from Jaffna. They fled the civil war that shook Sri Lanka from 1983 and which ended with the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in 2009. Ragupathylingam, her father, was an accountant. Hewas also amusician. “Hewas a well-known singer. But working as a Tamil musician in his country ended up being dangerous,” his daughter tells us. Priya’s mother, Chandrika, taught typing. After a passage throughGermany, the family settled in St. Gallen, with their young son, named Roshaan. The young Priya was to grow up in a stable, but very strict environment. Her father worked for the post office. Her mother was an assistant in a pharmacy. “It’s a sort of miracle for refugees to be able to start their lives again in a countrywhere they are not necessarilywelcome,” remarks Priya, who has Swiss citizenship. At school, she was one of only two girls with brown skin. She experienced some rejection. But for the most part, her integration went well. “I spent somuch time crossing between two worlds, I sometimes forgot the colour of my skin.” At home, Tamil music and Kollywood cinema, produced in Tamil Nadu in the south of India, kept alive the culture that her household did not want to forget. Eachweekend, the family invited round friends and Priya’smotherwould cook. Roshaanwould play the organ and Priya and Ragupathylingam would sing. Spoons and buckets were used for percussion. The little band would also play at parties. When asked to talk about her parents’ country, Priya shares memories tainted with sadness. Her links to the island are tenuous, and yet the Tamil culture radiates from her life and thus her music. A spiritual journey to New York As an adult, Priya Ragu left the family nest to move to Zurich. Trained in accounting, she was hired by Swiss to sell aircraft components. For years, she flirtedwith the idea of making music professionally, like her brother, who had already thrown himself heart and soul into the career. In 2017, she left her job and flew to New York. Each morning, Priyawouldwrite andmeditate. During the lastmonth of her half-year stay, Priya, who had moved to Brooklyn to an apartment with a recording studio lent by the American rapper Oddisee, began to compose. Roshaan, alias Japhna Gold, also had a small recording studio in a shared apartment in Oerlikon. The two musicians exchanged rhythms, melodies and texts online. Japhna suggested incorporating Tamil percussion, and bingo! Priya returned to Switzerland, where she was rehired by Swiss. Her salary was now used to fund recordings and produce music videos. Ragu music mixing R&B, soul, rap, Swiss, Tamil and a global star The Swiss singer of Tamil descent, Priya Ragu, has achieved worldwide success with her single “Good Love 2.0”. The daughter of Sri Lankan refugees, brought up in St. Gallen, her story is one of liberation. Colourful music, colourful clothing: singer Priya Ragu brings different worlds together in a blaze of colour. Photo: Warner Music
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