Nicolette

小简介
Nicolette was born in Scotland UK to Nigerian parents. Although she was born with an exceptional gift for music which manifested almost immediately, this talent was further nurtured by her father, who exposed Nicolette and her siblings to to a wide selection of varying genres of music (including Classical, Jazz, Blues, Country, Musicals, Traditional African, Traditional English, George Formby, and all and everything in between!) and made them learn, record, play and perform music from a very early age. This engendered an extraordinary discipline and confidence in Nicolette that was to stand her in good stead later in her musical career, which started after she returned from a 2 year sojourn in Paris. There, she had earned her living as an artists model because she had been too shy to sing! On her return to the UK (Cardiff, Wales) she started doing cabaret gigs with her sister under the name Les Voix Jumelles, did Jazz standard gigs in restaurants, and later formed a jazz-funk band with some friends. On hearing some of the new electronic dance music that was starting to filter through from the new rave and dance scenes, she decided she wanted to be part of what to her was a beautiful new contemporary Jazz scene, and to that end, moved to London immediately. On arrival she auditioned for breakbeat pioneers Shut Up And Dance and was signed to their label on the spot. Her first release with them, double A-sided single “Single-minded People/School Of The World” (1990) was a dancefloor smash hit and earned Nicolette a huge amount of fans. Several singles and an album (Now Is Early”, 1992) later, Nicolette’s career had definitely launched into success through both crowd- and critic-pleasing music and gigs, and she was even considered to support Prince on tour. Her amazing and distinctive voice began to be widely described as “Billie Holliday on acid” (!) perhaps due to its distinctive mellifluous, siren-like yet innocent quality. On the strength of these triumphs, Bristol group Massive Attack invited Nicolette to co-write and sing on two songs (“Sly” and” Three”) on their 2nd album, “Protection” (1994). This was a huge success, bringing Nicolette’s popularity and career to new levels. She went on to tour with Massive Attack for a year whilst writing her next album. In 1995, after a bidding war amongst several labels, Nicolette finally signed to Polygram’s famous “Talkin Loud” label. Working with the best producers of the time, she released several singles (amongst which the classic “No Government” (1995)), and an album “Let No-One Live Rent Free In Your Head” (1996). These were unanimously applauded by critics (also winning many “best album” and “best single” accolades) as well as great commercial successes. As a result, Nicolette and her band spent the next two years touring the world, which included playing at the world-famous Montreux Jazz festival and Glastonbury music festival. Meanwhile, Nicolette was asked by the !K7 label to participate in their famous “DJ Kicks” series. She agreed and did a a double CD DJ mix with a bonus track (Nicolette DJ Kicks, 1997) on the label. This kick-started her DJ career, as she immediately began to be offered DJ gigs worldwide due to the success of the release. To this day, Nicolette still DJs extensively, and has DJed in places as diverse as Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, the USA, Canada, and China, as well practically every country in Europe. In 1988, !K7 built on the success of Nicolette’s DJ mix by re-releasing her first album, “Now Is Early”. This pleased Nicolette’s established fanbase as well as garnering her new fans. That same year, Nicolette decided to leave “Talkin Loud” for pastures new. In 1999, she set up her own label, Early Records, and commenced work on her third album. Due to her touring schedules, running the label and having to learn to use technical equipment, the album took four years to make and was finally ready in 2004. Programmed, engineered, produced and mostly written by Nicolette, her 3rd album, “Life Loves Us’ was released to great worldwide acclaim and attention in 2005 and 2006 (depending on country). For an independent label release it was a major success. In 2007 and 2008, the “Great Stuff” label re-released her seminal hit “No Government” with remixes by Tocadisco and Mekossa and Megablast amongst others. Currently out is a single Nicolette did with DJ Cam for his new album. It is called "Love." Nicolette has a number of album and single releases coming out very soon, including her eagerly-awaited 4th album. In the meantime, people continue to enjoy her large and varied body of work, which also includes collaborations with distinguished artists such as Plaid and Banggang (and many more) on their own projects, and songs on many, many compilations worldwide. Naturally, her music has been featured extensively on film and TV, most notably on the films “Mission Impossible” and “City of Industry”. NICOLETTE: Who am I? I AM she to whom everything belongs. I am she whose sexual energy flows freely and naturally and purely. I am she who lives and breathes freely. I am she who is utterly free. I am she who flies at night and during the day should I so choose. I am she who is always safe. I am the indestructible and eternal. I am love. I am she who is in perfect health. I am she who loves and enjoys being healthy. I am she who can put her feet behind her head. I am she who is endlessly supple. I am she who loves endlessly and freely. I am the uninhibited one. I am she whose energy or chi runs freely through her body. I am she whose energy is never stuck. I am she who is well, well, well. I love that I am so well. I am she with whom all is well. I am the beloved. I am she of 100% faith always. I am she whose faith is ever-strong. I am she of perfect flow. I flow and I flow and I flow. Therefore I am she of right action. I know and I know and I know. I am she who loves lightly and deeply. I am she of the healing laughter. I am she whose skin is endlessly smooth. I am she who is ageless and ever young. I am she of endless energy. I am she who worships. I am she who loves so much. I am full of gratitude, endlessly and forever. I am she who is infected by the greeness of the trees. I am she who breathes the green fragrance of the forest. The green fragrance of the bushes. I am she who feels the flight of the birds in her body. I am she who is the endless promise. I am she who loses herself in the voluptuousness of the sky. I am she who gets lost in the milky moon. Who bathes naked in the sensual moonlight. I am blessed and I know this endlessly. And I sing out my blessings now and forevermore. I am happy. Who am I? Happiness personified. No-one and nothing can take away my happiness. I am endlessly creative. Nothing is beyond my power. Who am I? I am she who is utterly free.
by John Bush
From rare-groove to rave to trip-hop and soul, Nicolette was one of the most eccentric dance vocalists of the 1990s, working with everyone from the one-shot rave act L.A. Style to electro futurists like Plaid. Born in Scotland though she was raised in Nigeria, France and Switzerland, Nicolette debuted with the single Wicked Mathematics after being one of the first signings by the eponymous label run by Shut Up and Dance. Her debut album, 1992s Now Is Early showed her to be an uncommonly mature talent who wrote her own songs (some engaged in political commentary) and featured a warm, crystalline voice. Besides various vocal gigs (including Massive Attacks Protection), Nicolette rarely recorded during the next four years. Finally in 1996, she was signed to Gilles Petersons Talkin Loud Records. Her second album, Let No-One Live Rent Free in Your Head, appeared that same year. Nicolette also contributed an edition in Studio !K7s DJ Kicks series.