Adia Victoria was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina and is one of six siblings. Her father is Trinidadian. She was raised as a Seventh-day Adventist and she attended church schools until in the 6th grade, her mother enrolled her in public school. Shortly after, her parents divorced and Victoria began to write poetry and short stories as a means of coping. Being moved from the world of Seventh-day Adventists to a public school was difficult for Victoria, who didn't feel she fit in. Victoria and her siblings often spent time with her maternal grandparents who lived near Campobello. She attended Landrum Junior High School in Campobello. Her family also left the Adventist church before Victoria attended high school, which allowed her to explore music she hadn't been exposed to before, like Kurt Cobain, Miles Davis and Fiona Apple. After high school, she went to New York for a time, in an attempt to "strike it big in a new city." In 2007, she left New York for Atlanta. On her 21st birthday, a friend gave her a guitar and she began to work with blues music. Victoria moved to Nashville in 2010. She chose Nashville as a place where she could live anonymously. In Nashville, she earned her GED and then took French in college. She began to perform around Nashville. In 2016, she performed at South by Southwest. Her personal "look" was noticed by Vogue for its "Afropop" roots. However, Victoria states that she doesn't like to be "fetishized" for her looks, saying, "People think that because you are attractive, you owe the world something, to let them consume you."
Work
Victoria began her career with a backing band consisting of Ruby Rogers, Tiffany Minton, and Mason Hickman. Later, she began working with a different group, and they debuted together in January 2016. Victoria's first single release was "Stuck In the South", which was described on All Things Considered as a "very swampy mysterious kind of slow-burning song." Rolling Stone describes her as "PJ Harvey covering Loretta Lynn at a haunted debutante ball." Her live performances are described by Wondering Sound as angry and "furious and feral." American Songwriter calls her stage presence "commanding." Victoria's full-length debut, Beyond the Bloodhounds, was produced by Roger Moutenot, The name of the album is a reference to Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. The predominant theme of her first album is dealing with life in her twenties. Moutenot has previously collaborated with Yo La Tengo and also produced her first single. Canvasback is her current record label.
