Precious

Swept away by music studies on flute and piano since age four, Anya Lahiri has, by her own reckoning "always been into music." She was all of eight years old when she played her first performance as part of the youth music theatre in which she was involved. "We performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of a competition for young kids where you made up your own script. So we all made up a script about characters from books who all come to life, and I was Pollyanna." Her Pollyanna days may be behind her, but there is no denying the storybook quality of her life as a member of Precious uk. Born in Hampstead, Anya has always lived in North London ("I'm a real London girl, I love it"). She possesses the smoldering multi-cultural look that is a gift of her Finnish mother and Indian father, and has often been called "the secret weapon" of Precious uk. Educated at the academically demanding Henrietta Barnett School, Anya was a creative and gifted student and music prodigy who might have gone on to study biology in college - if "a stroke of luck" had not landed her in Precious uk. Dancing, singing, modeling, and a long-standing desire to organize a pop band with some friends led Anya to the group's doorstep. Now she is able to channel her musical abilities into helping compose the original material that accompanies every new single. One of two teenagers in Precious uk (along with Kalli), Anya is also the only vegetarian in the group, a regiment that goes hand in hand with her love of animals, especially horses. In fact, she has been both a vegetarian and an avid rider since age nine. Whenever she has a bit of time off, Anya says, "I like to play my flute and piano because it's so relaxing, but I also love to go horse riding, that's a real passion of mine."