In her softly lit room, Dikyi Ukyab starts strumming her guitar as she glances down at her fingers every so often- as if to make sure they’re still there. She begins to sing her acoustic version of Katy Perry’s “Firework,” one of the many videos on her Youtube channel. Dikyi reposts the video on her Facebook page, with the message “Something inspirational to get you through the weekend.” She is currently a typical political science major here at SUNY Purchase. What most of the students around her don’t know is that she not only sings to her web camera, but to the people of Nepal, where her album, “Silver Lining” has reached number three on the charts.
“It was amazing,” Dikyi says as she takes a long pause and a deep breath “I was kinda doing my happy dance.”
Starting at number ten in September, Dikyi’s album has been moving up and is getting closer to being number one. The album contains eight tracks, six of which are Nepalese and two in English.
Growing up, Dikyi traveled back and forth between Nepal and New York. She said it was always her plan to give back to her community by recording Nepalese songs on her album. “I’ve been singing for forever,” she says with a smile on her face.
Raised by her Nepalese mother and Tibetan-Nepalese father, she was influenced by both her mother’s poetry and of her mother and father’s strong influences to be active in their community. “It definitely rubbed off,” she said. “My dad is very active in a lot of cultural organizations.”
Dikyi is very involved with the Tibetan Movement and likes to surround herself with people who are as active and as passionate as her. The Tibetan movement, as she describes, is about the movement for freedom of oppression under the People’s Republic of China, who currently occupy Tibet.
The purpose of the album “Silver Lining” was not to bring her political values to the table but to bring a positive energy to her people. “I kind of want to just make music for music’s sake for now. I would love to be able to carry political and important global messages that I have later on, but I want my music to be something anyone and everyone can listen too” Dikyi also said that understanding international political issues has gotten her to explore her cultural history and is where she gets most of her inspiration to understand where she comes from.
According to Dikyi’s Facebook music page, “‘Silver Lining’ presents a new type of Nepalese pop fusion, combining western tones with a traditional Nepalese sound. Throughout her album she has various diverse genres from a pop-modern-folk song to an acoustic-romantic song.
“This whole album is an optimistic approach at life and you can’t really take that without understanding that sad things are going to happen too,” she said. “I think that is something that I tried to express in my album and that’s why it’s called ‘Silver Lining.’”
She has already filmed two music videos and released “Jaun,” as her single. “There are a lot of nationalistic songs that celebrate Nepalese people, culture and land,” Dikyi said. “I wanted it to be something that all people can enjoy.”
Dikyi started on this project two years ago. Recording most of the album in two months, but was unable to return to Nepal until this summer, where she replaced a song with her current single “Jaun.”
“What I’m talking about for instance in my single “Jaun” is about reaching your goals while enjoying everything in your way no matter what is standing in your way and really understanding your hardship and loving them and being carefree and happy,” she said.
Dikyi has over 2,000 views of the video on Youtube and many positive comments from her fans. She said even though she is now at school, she tries to keep up with her Facebook and Youtube pages as much as possible by responding to her fans’ comments. Tshang16 commented on her “Jaun” video, “I know all the lyrics to this song and I think it is a huge accomplishment for a Nepali song. I love it.” Dikyi responded, “Tshang16 I’m so flattered! Thank you so much, keep watching and sharing!”
Her transition to school is no “Hannah Montana double life” scenario though. Ukyab works as a Student Life assistant and plans events for students with performers, food, speakers and much more.
Dikyi is planning to go on tour performing various venues in Nepal and Bhutan, a neighboring country to Nepal. For the tour, Dikyi is working on her second album, which she plans on performing some of while on tour. She is also working on a Tibetan album.
**Photos courtesy of Dikyi’s Facebook Page