Richmond rapper Fijiana is a rising artist in the Bay Area’s music scene. Born in Fiji, she is Indian and her culture is very prevalent in her music. In fact, Fijiana just made her debut performance in India.
“Welcome to the Bay” was Fijiana’s breakout single in 2025. With more than 20 million social media views, the song was her first to be played on the radio and the first to be played at a sporting event.
“When I first saw it at the Giants game, being played at the arena, I was like, ‘This is crazy,'” she said.
In May, Fijiana performed for the first time in India for the NBA during halftime for the celebrity match.
“India was a dream,” she said. “My music, being able to take me back to this land that my ancestors were stolen from, to be able to perform there and then connect with the people…I felt really like proud.”
Fijiana came to Richmond at the age of three. She proudly shows off her Indo-Fijian roots and immigrant background in her music. The music has cultural influences and her lyrics address issues facing the Indian community.
Fijiana still works a day job to pay the bills. The independent artist writes all her songs and hopes one day that day job is just the music.
“I just always had such a musical background, but I was always very like, ‘No, I’m shy. That’s not the life I wanna live.’ And then I was like, I’ll try. I was actually, ‘I think this is what I wanna do,'” she said.
Off the stage, what’s Fijiana like? She said she is shy and an introvert. She’s also a big history nerd.
“I have a history degree, so I am definitely always opening up a book about some kind of history lesson,” she said.
Fijiana is working on a new single titled, “Foreign”. She also has two big performances coming up in the Bay Area this summer. She’ll be a special guest performer at San Francisco Pride on June 28 and perform at Stern Grove on July 5.
