14 DAY TRIAL // Viktoria Modesta is a 26-year-old Latvian-born singer who is now living in the UK and is trying to launch her pop career. She’s also a songwriter and a model, and has been dubbed the “world’s first amputee pop artist” in her debut music video, for the single “Prototype,” promoted by Channel 4.
The video was released several days ago and was featured in our Viral of the Day section. Since then, it has gathered over 3 million views, which can mean only one thing for the gorgeous Viktoria: she’s getting her big break at stardom.
Speaking with Elle magazine, she says she’s not just a champion for disability, given that she too had her leg amputated 6 years ago. She is also the expression of the “freedom of choosing your own identity.”
The pop industry needs someone “genuine,” relatable
It’s very difficult to make it big in pop music, precisely because there are millions of girls and boys, some of them more talented than others, who would do anything for a shot at their 15 minutes of fame. When becoming famous isn’t a matter of who has the most backing (whether financial or in connections), it’s a matter of pure luck.
Viktoria has none of this: she worked hard to get to where she is, and has been trying to make this happen for a very long time.
When Channel 4 approached her and asked her if she’d like to do a video with them, which they’d use as a means to change perceptions on disability and she could use to get her singing career off the ground, she jumped at the chance because she knew no other would come along.
Still, she says, she’s not doing it only because she wants to champion disability but rather to send a stronger message: whenever the world tells you that you are not the right fit, don’t struggle to change yourself to become that. Just be yourself, invent your own identity.
“I am a genuine character, and it feels like people have been waiting for that, to be able to relate to somebody who isn’t trying to sell them some kind of unobtainable dream,” she says.
Losing a limb was an upgrade
For Viktoria, her goal was always to be a pop star and a model, but she couldn’t be either because of her leg. She was born with a malformation, and for years, doctors tried to “fix” it. Aged 20, after 15 painful interventions and even more pain on a daily basis, she decided to cut it off.
Today, she gets to choose between a prosthetic leg with Swarovski crystals, or one that lights up or even one she likes to call “the highest heel anyone has ever worn” and which resembles more a spike than a regular prosthetic leg. She describes her amputation an “upgrade” because it finally allowed her to pursue her dreams.
And this is what she wants to inspire in her present and future fans: the idea that they don’t have to conform, that they should not buy into manufactured ideals, and that they can be whoever they want to be.
“It would be fantastic if people of all ethnic backgrounds, physicality, and sexuality were able to exist in the media spotlight without getting a shock or a negative reaction. It's important to see they can be just as powerful and accomplished of an individual as anybody else is,” she says.
Viktoria is here to show you how.
