Dancer Yamuna Sangarasivam is a well-known artist and teacher in Sri Lanka. She is skilled in dance forms such as Bharatanatyam and Odissi as well as Western classical piano. Outside of her home country, however, she is best known for her collaboration with Michael Jackson on the music video for the latter's song 'Black or White'. Recently, Yamuna reminisced about landing the opportunity to be featured in the now-iconic music video.

In an interview with Festember NIT Trichy, Yamuna Sangarasivam said that when she was approached for an audition for the song, she had second thoughts about it because she thought that Odissi would not fit in with Western dance forms. "At the time, I was like, 'Well, you know, maybe I don't know. I don't think so. Because, you know, ours is really a classical tradition. I'm not sure how this is going to fit into a Michael Jackson video," Yamuna said.

However, Yamuna disclosed that a conversation with her parents the same evening made her change her mind about the audition. "Amma said, 'Chellam, darling, you absolutely should go for the audition. And that's how I ended up going to the audition."

She also said that Michael Jackson's production team called her a week after the audition and conveyed the King of Pop's interest in doing a duet with her. "As soon as I put down the phone, I screamed and was just jumping off the walls and immediately called my parents. It was just an amazing and very exciting news to hear," the dancer said. Reportedly, she was chosen from 3000 candidates for the song video. While their portions together in the song do not last long, nailing the duet required hours of rehearsal.

Yamuna's story of how she landed the chance to collaborate with the King of Pop is trending as reels and shorts on social media and other digital platforms thanks to the release of the Michael Jackson biopic, starring his nephew Jaafar Jackson.