Bay Space-based Indo-Fiji artist Fijiana. Picture: Courtesy of the artist
Once you rating a breakout hit, doorways get opened. For Fiji-origin, Bay Space-based Fijiana, she received invited to carry out on the halftime present of the Oakland Roots Sports activities Membership dwelling recreation on Apr. 18, 2026. She recollects how some have been in attendance simply to catch her efficiency, following the success of songs like “Welcome to the Bay” and “STA.”
Fijiana says over a video name from the U.S. an Indian-origin household met her quickly after the efficiency. “There was an older man who introduced his entire household and he was type of shy, however his daughter was like, ‘He introduced us all right here! He was like, now we have to go help her!’ That was simply so stunning to see,” she says.
She’s additionally received loads of love from Indo-Fijian people for placing their tradition on the map. “It warms my coronary heart to see the diaspora really feel like they see themselves in me,” Fijiana says. Within the months for the reason that identity-focused hood anthem “Welcome to the Bay” accrued greater than half 1,000,000 streams throughout platforms, the artist has gone on to launch a sensual single “STA” and help R&B powerhouse Kehlani. Now, she’s on her strategy to make her debut India efficiency at BUDX NBA Home in New Delhi on Could 9, 2026, alongside the likes of NAV, Reble, Yashraj, The Bausa and extra. She says, “I really feel so excited to even have this reference to India via music, and I get to go be in India via work.”
It’s a fast 15-minute set for Fijiana, so she guarantees her best-known songs to date – “Id,” “Welcome to the Bay” and “STA” – carried out with dancers from the Kings United crew. “I’m doing type of the songs that I are inclined to do for a much bigger stadium type of viewers. I needed to decide on two songs that I really like dancing to,” she says with fun.
Outdoors of the performances, Fijiana plans a mixture of work and play. She says, “I want to have a studio session [with Indian artists]. I really feel like that will be ideally suited.” She pauses and provides, “I simply need to meet individuals. I used to be speaking to my buddy yesterday, I used to be like, ‘Hopefully I get to make out with somebody scorching after I’m there.’”
That type of discuss is one thing Fijiana has at all times mirrored in her music, proper from her debut album Thirst in 2022 and singles like “Sanskari Hoe” with New Delhi producer duo MadStarBase. However then, she additionally mirrored on life within the Bay Space, with a monitor that blew up as a result of it showcased simply how welcoming and multiculturally numerous the area on the West Coast U.S. was. She recounts, “I knew I used to be singing in regards to the Bay, but it surely was additionally very cultural in a manner, and I wouldn’t count on it to go as type of mainstream, like in American tradition – it didn’t actually cross my thoughts. The truth that individuals type of simply took it and accepted it, particularly within the Bay, which is, like, the place my viewers actually is… it was like, ‘Oh, y’all settle for this Indo-Fiji immigrant woman in your neighborhood, in your hearts.’”
Understandably, Fijiana says there’s a degree of stress that comes after songs have blown up globally, like “Welcome to the Bay” and “STA” have. Her subsequent materials additionally talks about individuality, however another way. Like her snarling 2021 single “Id,” which known as out appropriation and proudly claimed her Indo-Fiji roots, Fijiana says the subsequent music addresses “immigration points.” She acknowledges that hip-hop is supposed for “liberation and to convey consciousness to points.” Fijiana explains, “I believe it’s essential [to talk about these issues]. I really feel like I’m in hip-hop, and I believe I strongly really feel—particularly as brown individuals in hip-hop, we will make enjoyable stuff and no matter—but when we’re not utilizing hip-hop as a instrument, then we’re simply type of in appropriation. I don’t need to stay that manner.”
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