Vanessa Marcia is a musician and singer from the Netherlands, with Surinamese roots. Growing up she got influenced by a lot of music styles like soul, R&B, hiphop, reggae, dancehall, Latin, African and Caribbean music styles, like her traditional Afro-Surinamese styles like kaseko and kawina. At a young age she started to sing in the youth choir in church and learned to play the piano.
Vanessa got music lessons for years and after high school she wanted to become a music teacher herself. She auditioned and could start at the prior education of the Conservatory, but she decided to study social work and after graduation she worked many years in that work field. During her social work career Vanessa met lots of vulnerable people with talents who asked for help and support, which inspired her to start the VVFLEX foundation together with her best friend, the late Marlon Hoefdraad. VVFLEX is working on talent-development and empowerment of different groups and there have also been international and exchange projects.