2023-06-18 22:14:14
There are artists who, due to their successes, give the impression that they have been at the top of the musical sphere for longer. Nicki Nicole (Rosario, Argentina, 2000) is one of those examples. She started uploading her music to the internet in 2019, when she was just 18 years old. In just four, she has positioned herself as the most listened to on the different streaming channels with billions of views. She has won awards such as the best collaboration at the Los40 Music Awards or the radar artist at the Spotify Awards. Now, she just released her third album, Almamuch “more intimate and true”, he says, than the previous ones.
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Nicki Nicole is one of the greatest exponents of the new musical wave in Argentina and of the urban genre in the world. She started in cockfights doing freestylebut his style goes from rap al R&B going through it trap or the reggaeton She joined the Dale Play Records music label with Duki and Bizarrap and has done several songs with them, such as Already left or one of the first sessions of the Argentine producer, specifically number 13, with more than 200 million views on YouTube. According to data from Spotify, it is listened to by 34 million people worldwide every month. He also has a Tiny Desk session and songs like Michulas or the remix of She is not yours both close to half a billion reproductions on the platforms of streaming. He has collaborated with Spanish artists such as Aitana, Morad, Delaossa or, on his latest album, Rels B.
In Spain, he will perform in Santander (June 24), Gijón (June 30), Barcelona (at the Cruïlla festival, on July 5), Caldas de Reis (Pontevedra, at the Portamérica festival, July 14) and at Nights of the Botanical of Madrid (July 15). She answers elDiario.es by video call and tells that she arrived in Spain at the beginning of June and that she has been in Barcelona to celebrate the Formula 1 Grand Prix. “I have hardly slept during all this travel,” she laments with a laugh.
Four years ago he uploaded his first song, Wapo clumsy, and now he has just released his third album. It looks much more intimate and personal than other works. What were his intentions with Alma?
at the time of taking out Alma I was in a very personal moment. When I started this record it was very much reflected in my essence. The name of the album came out almost at the end of already having all the songs, because it was listening to it with the producer, Tatool, and it was like listening to me 100%. We felt like it was my essence and we put Alma by name.
At just 23 years old, she is an internationally recognized artist. She has broken a lot of records and has several music awards. How do you digest all this explosion and success in just four years from the first hit?
The truth is that it is very crazy how they happened. I feel like one is just going because it was like super fast. At first it was a bit difficult for me to assimilate and take responsibility for having that place in the industry, knowing that everything I say or do can be taken as an example. I matured and understood many things about my space, which is not just leaving a message in music, but also that many people see my personal side. People of all ages, girls, but boys too. I began to take everything with much more responsibility and professionalism. That is why much more serious things can happen today. The album is something more serious, it has much more accomplished sounds that are breaking down barriers and limitations that I used to put before. Listening to it, people tend to believe a lot in the person I am and it gives that credibility that I wanted to generate.
Delving into our roots made Spanish-speaking music more powerful
Argentina has always been highly recognized for the indie and the rock. you come from rap and of the freestyle. For about five years people like you, Duki, Cazzu or Bizarrap with their sessions They are referents of urban music from around the world and have positioned their country. Was there a niche to fill or has it been an explosion of talent?
I think that things were potentially happening, not only in Argentina, but in all of the Spanish-speaking world. You enter any top in any country, any global top, and Spanish-speakers always lead. It has a lot to do with the people who listen to the music and how they defend it. I feel that before all of us who are Spanish-speaking consumed a lot of music from abroad, which is also incredible, but today we go deeper into our country, our cities, our roots, our language… and that made everything grow. in power.
In parallel, there was a lot of union and support between artists that made the new ones become better known and incredible things happen, such as collaborations. There are up to ten artists in a remix and that generates more visibility for everyone and perhaps not just one per country, as it was before.
Today there is a lot of return to the essence and the root. In Argentina it is L-Gante with its new cumbias and in Mexico Featherweight with corridosFor example.
Exact. I think that today there are many essences embodied and no one compares artists anymore because each one has their own and there is no need to compete.
One usually says that women are tried to be compared, but that they respond with solidarity, mutual support and unity.
The support is super genuine, which is what I like the most about this entire industry. And speaking of artists that there is zero carriage [hipocresía]. No one is pretending to support you and not really. I always notice that it is something superpure. At least from what I see of my colleagues in music, everything was always super healthy. Never anything of bad intentions, especially among women.
In fact, there has always been talk among us that we should never get carried away by the media or by those programs that claimed to compare women. They always do it with us. It is something that happens a lot and that is like full normalized and I feel that it is not right, as women, to endorse that, especially in front of the public. Sometimes the media invade with this news and we end up comparing without wanting to. We listen to each other and we always celebrate each other. Hopefully one day it will stop happening that the media compares the artists and enjoy them more.
In other interviews he has talked about how women have more pressure than men on stage. For example, regarding dancing, “at Duke [Duki] Nobody asks him to take a few steps,” he said in another interview. Do you claim that women don’t have to do everything in videos and on stage?
Oh, when I said that I thought Duki might get angry, but the reference wasn’t about him [risas]. I meant it in the sense that sometimes, even in one’s own subconscious, much more is required of women than of men. We are asked to dance and have amazing shows and it’s kind of crazy because I think music has to be enjoyed and valued. If a woman spreads her legs on stage it’s epic and I remil I applaud, but the truth is that if he is going to sing and not dance in his songs, I am also going to see him and enjoy it.
More visibility was needed for the female presence. she was always there
You are a female reference. Within the urban genre there are more and more women. Was there a need for more female presence in the genre?
More visibility was needed for the female presence. She was always there. I’ve been listening to Bad Gyal for a long time. Rosalía or Karol G too. And, well, also to all the girls from Argentina who obviously have been here for a long time and I think that visibility was lacking. People today are seeing and becoming aware of this and taking their women in their countries or abroad to another level. That is something I celebrate a lot.
Faced with all this exposure and becoming a benchmark, on the other side, he has spoken on many occasions about the self-demand to which he submits. Is the pressure normalized in the industry?
I don’t know every person, I try not to put too much pressure on myself and enjoy more. The pressure makes you go places compulsorily and you can not enjoy it. If you enter a studio to record a song under pressure, neither in essence nor anything you want to generate will come out, because it goes hand in hand with the obligation, with the pressure. I think that everything starts from the enjoyment and from something that has to do with dreams and not as an obligation to feel that you have to do something.
As a reference of the generation Z claims the importance of mental health and make visible the issue of going to the psychologist. How important is it to take care of it?
The most important thing is to take care of ourselves and our health. Know how to set limits. Not self-demand, respect ourselves and also respect the rest.
Talking to my mom about what happens to me, she told me that as a girl it didn’t happen that people who went to the psychologist talked about those problems. It was something that was not spoken and that one kept it all. And I say, how difficult, right? If today, when I talk about those emotions, it’s kind of difficult, imagine someone who never talks about them.
Although you just released the album, how do you see yourself in the next few years, where do you see yourself as an artist and where do you want to go?
From here to the future I would like to learn a lot more about music, to be able to take it to the whole world with the shows, the tours… I really enjoy being on stage, with people and being able to heal a lot of people through my music. That would be a pleasure.
Music can give you the answers to your questions or problems and that’s what I want to generate in people, give them messages to keep going.
How can music help that?
When I listen to music it heals me a lot and I feel like music has a power… Like you get up and listen to a song and it changes your day. Any music stimulant can give you the answers to your questions or problems. A lot has happened to me with artists that I admire and that is what I want to generate in people. Give them certain messages to keep them going, to clear their minds, and to enjoy the music itself.
Do you mean something like making it yours?
Exact. It has happened to me to release a song that personally talks about the X situation and that a person comes and tells me ‘I heard it’ and talks about another situation for him. That is the most beautiful thing about music: you make it your own and heal in your own way, capable with the same song but in a different way. It is what I enjoy the most when making music.
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