MUMBAI: The biggest weapon Gen-X has is the internet. With the advent of social networking sites, youngsters have been prompt to use them to voice opinions, ideas, grievances. One such example is young Amika Sahil who has YouTubed her way to glory. Unlike keyboard warriors who just offer the world a pile of trash, Amika, on the other hand, mesmerized the internet with her sweet soothing voice. Bagging millions of views on most of her videos, Sahil is one of the top six YouTubers in India.

“I started uploading my work on YouTube two or three years back. I would put up songs I liked singing, plus a couple of random videos of myself. The response was overwhelming so I started taking my channel seriously,” says Amika.

The YouTube sensation recently lent her voice for ‘Ittefaqan’ that flaunts her powerful yet graceful voice is a mellow jazzy track from ‘Wedding Anniversary’ starring Nana Patekar and Mahie Gill. Although the movie has not made much of an impact but Abhishek Ray’s music is probably the only good thing about the movie. Her rendition of the evergreen Rabindra Sangeet ‘Jodi Tor Daak Shune Keu Na Aashe’ shows her versatility and really identifies her as a powerhouse vocalist.

Amika, a resident of Uttarpara, Howrah district began her musical journey at the age of five when she started taking Indian classical lessons. Her mother had signed her up for ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l champs’ first edition in 2004 where she was placed in the top ten. She, later on, went to participate in ‘Amul Voice of India’ in 2006 where she made it to the top five and there was no looking back for her after then.

“I started giving out my demos to directors, in fact, I recorded the demo for ‘Ittefaqan’ a year back and luckily Abhishek chose mine and things started to slowly fall into place after that,” said the pretty young vocalist. In fact not to stereotype, owing to her pretty looks, Amika bagged one of the lead roles in Manoj Bhatia’s upcoming movie ‘I am Roshni’ which is set to release this year. “I went to record a song for the movie and the director said I would fit into one of the roles really well. I did not think twice before saying 'yes' because I love being in front of the camera right from my Sa Re Ga Ma Pa days,” smiled the budding artiste.

Amidst all of her recent endeavours Amika, has never fallen short of giving importance to her YouTube channel. “Everything started there and I want to broaden my categories on YouTube by uploading more videos and producing quality music that people are genuinely going to enjoy. That is going to occupy the larger portion of 2017.”

Apart from that, Amika is an ardent live performer and says she enjoys a crowd that dances and sings along with her. “I love including numbers that my audience will connect with on my set list. This makes them an active audience and that automatically makes the concert more enjoyable for me.”

We can’t wait to hear and see more of this multi-talented artiste who is climbing up the ladder pretty swiftly.