Marié Digby burst out as a YouTube phenomenon solely on the basis of her guitar and her voice.

The 31-year-old singer's acoustic cover of Rihanna's breakthrough hit "Umbrella" went viral in 2007, eventually amassing over 21 million views. It even led to an appearance on the NBC late night show "Last Call with Carson Daly."

A few years later, Digby's 2008 single "Spell," was featured on the TV series "The Hills" and "Smallville"

The song also caught the attention of Girls' Generation singer Kim Taeyeon who gushed about the song both in interviews and on social media.

"All of a sudden, I had a lot of tweets from her fans in Korea and that led me to discover [Taeyeon's]  music as well," Digby recalled in an exclusive interview with KpopStarz, earlier this week.

The New York City-born songwriter admitted that the shout out from the Girls' Generation chanteuse was the first time she had ever thought about Korean pop.

"I got introduced to Girls' Generation because Taeyeon had mentioned in an interview that she liked my song 'Spell,'" she said.

"To be honest, I'm still a little new to K-pop," she said. "I actually like an older BoA music video for the song ' Eat You Up,' because I envy her dancing skills. She is so fluid and natural."

When asked who her favorite K-pop artist is, Digby grinned and replied instantly.

"I would have to stick to Taeyeon of Girls Generation, because she has been a supporter of my music as well," said the singer.

"But just in general, K-pop bands are starting to really break through all markets which is exciting to witness. I think this happening because of the strength of the music, dancing and overall presentation."

Coming from a mixed ethnic background of Irish and Japanese, Digby understands the difficulty of breaking into the American market.

"I would be lying if I didn't say some negative stigma exists out there for Asian-American artists," she said. "I experienced it first hand when I first started out even though I didn't want it to be true. But the good news is, it's all baseless because the fact is, there are so many talented Asian-American artists who are now emerging and beginning to take over the music scene."

Though Digby admits her music is a far cry from the sonic sensibilities of K-pop, she does share the love of a good dance beat.

"My style is probably quite different from K-pop for the most part when it comes to what I write but I enjoy listening to music of all genres," she said. "If anything, my new music should make you want to dance and I surmise that K-pop fans like to move."

Here is the music video to Digby's newest single off the Chimera EP, "Diamond Eyes."