NIKI Announces New Album Nicole

On May 31, NIKI announced via social media that her sophomore album Nicole will be released this August. A new single for the album titled “Before” dropped on June 3.

“I am unimaginably excited to announce that my sophomore album ‘Nicole’ will be coming out this August,” NIKI wrote. “This project is without a doubt my most favorite thing I have ever made as an artist.”   

i couldn’t ask for nothing but a good music from niki zefanya

— zéa. ia (@01974HRT) June 2, 2022

Nicole Zefanya, best known as NIKI, is an Indonesian-American singer and songwriter signed with the record label 88rising. Some of her most popular songs include “lowkey,” “I Like U,” and “Every Summertime,” which all have over 100 million streams on Spotify. 

NIKI’s music career started when she won the Cornetto Ride to Fame competition hosted by Taylor Swift, SONY Music, and the ice-cream brand Wall’s, at fifteen years old. Winners of the competition had the chance to perform as the opening act at one of Swift’s shows in Southeast Asia during The Red Tour. She told NME in a 2018 interview that performing at Swift’s show in Jakarta, Indonesia was the catalyst for her YouTube channel, which led her to learn how to produce her own music. Before signing as NIKI, she posted original songs on YouTube under the channel name nzee24, which is now deleted. 

“Many of you were disappointed when I took those videos down,” NIKI explained on social media. “I think I was just running from myself for a while. But sitting with myself through the pandemic forced some kind of reckoning to occur and I re-evaluated what I actually value and yearn for in life, music included.” 

Inspired by Taylor’s Version, NIKI admits that she has been quietly re-recording and reimagining some of her old songs that were posted on her YouTube channel.

NIKI in her Taylor’s Version era and we love it !! pic.twitter.com/YkS46GTdnr

— KAI (Taylor’s Version) (@mordekaiiiiii) June 1, 2022

“I always felt high school Nic deserved to have her songs published,” announced NIKI. “The first half of the album will feature both new & archived songs no one’s ever heard before, and the latter half will feature my personal favorite originals that used to live on nzee24.”

While fans wait for NIKI’s new album, her music can be streamed on all music streaming platforms. The music video for her new song “Before” is available down below.