Highlights
- An early YouTube sensation in Nepal, Nattu Shah initially hesitated to open up about her sexuality.
- She says acceptance from family and friends made her feel she was 'unworthy' of advocating for the LGBTQI+ community.
- Shah's first song went 'viral' through Bluetooth transfers and then YouTube.
A well-known figure in the Nepali music and media industries, Nattu Shah has been living incognito in Australia as a sound engineering student.
Prior to moving down under, she made a name for herself as a singer, songwriter, musician, content creator, and TV host in Nepal over the past decade.
In recent years she has also become an advocate for the rights of sexual minorities in the Himalayan nation.
A voice for LGBTIQ+ rights
Identifying as a lesbian, Shah says she has heard many stories of suffering from the LGBTIQ+ community.
“This includes people being evicted from their home by their own family, being beaten and even killed,” she tells SBS Nepali.
Shah adds that some families in Nepal are reluctant to accept their children being gay or lesbian for fear of losing their social reputation.
I still have a small issue with Nepal, why do we live for society? It’s our life and our parents are like, 'What will others say?'
"But why should I care? Are they breathing for me? Have I signed a contract with them?”
However, she is thankful for her family, who accepted her for who she is, and for her friends, who play a significant part in her life.
Shah has spoken in past interviews about the support she received from her late friend Nilu Doma Sherpa.
Sherpa, who died of cardiac arrest in 2017, was a Nepali film director and a confidante of Shah.
Nattu Shah with Nilu Doma Sherpa (right) and other friends. Source: Supplied
Although Shah has been in the public eye for over a decade, she took a long time to talk openly about her sexual preference.
“I don’t like to announce my private life publicly,” she says, adding that originally she didn’t want to add any tags to her name.
In addition, because of the strong support she received from her family and friends, Shah says she felt like she wasn't the right person to advocate for the LGBTIQ+ community.
I always used to think I was not worthy (of advocating).
But that all changed when she talked with Laxmi Ghalan, founder of Mitini Nepal, a non-government social organisation that works for the rights of the LGBTIQ+ community in the country.
Ghalan convinced her to come forward and talk about her experience, saying happy stories are also important for the community.
Since then, she has been vocal about the lack of social understanding for the LGBTIQ+ community.
Nattu Shah performing live. Source: Supplied
Social media for change
In one of the posts on her verified Facebook account, Shah talks about the right way of asking questions about someone’s identity.
She also uses TikTok, where she has more than 129,000 followers, as a platform to open up discussion of childhood bullying in a confronting but comic way.
She says, “We have already experienced (bullying) and we have learned from it, so we should focus our thinking on how to make it better for the next generation.”
And Shah hopes young people won’t face a similar amount of bullying and harassment as she had.
Nattu Shah also hosted a reality show in Nepal. Source: Supplied
"These social platforms are helping people with similar experiences to come together and exchange their feelings," she says.
Becoming a Bluetooth sensation
Looking back on her musical career, Shah says she could never have predicted her first song, ‘Ma Dherai Maya Garchhu’ - recorded through a computer headset in the late noughties and transferred to her phone as an MP3 file - would go on to be such a success.
“My friends liked the song so I transferred it via Bluetooth onto their phones and from there I forgot about it because for me it was just a song about the moment.”
What she didn’t realise was that her friends had transferred the song to others and it eventually made its way into the playlists of many teenagers.
“I didn’t realise but (the song) had even crossed borders and reached Britain.”
When she went to London for her studies, her cousin encouraged her to “claim the song” by putting it on YouTube.
According to Shah, what made this remarkable was the internet in Nepal.
Nattu Shah singing 'Ma Dherai Maya Garchhu', her first song uploaded to YouTube. Source: Nattu Shah/YouTube
Firstly, because it was not easily accessible at the time and it was slow.
YouTube journey
Shah uploaded the song to YouTube on 4 January 2009, though she had created the account in 2008.
At times she is even called the first YouTuber of Nepal; however, that title perhaps belongs to rapper and vlogger Girish Khatiwada, who created his account in 2006.
Still, as one of the country's online pioneers, Shah says social media platforms are helping people to connect, which is especially important for the LGBTIQ+ community.
(Before the internet) you felt very alone, it was very difficult to find other people from the community to feel safe. But now with the help of the internet, it has opened the boundaries.
Now a proud sound engineering graduate from Australia, Shah intends one day to open a studio in Nepal to provide quality recording opportunities for others.
"As much as I miss the comfort of Nepal, I enjoy the freedom here in Australia," she says.
Nattu Shah performing in Nepal. Source: Supplied
