Nikka Costa performed live at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival at the T-Mobile's Village at the Yard.
Nikka Costa (born Domenica Costa, June 4, 1972 in Tokyo, Japan), is an American singer whose music combines elements of funk, soul, and blues, among other genres. Though she is relatively unknown in the United States, she has achieved impressive commercial success overseas, most notably in Australia, Italy and Germany. She is the daughter of Don Costa, a legendary arranger and producer of pop music, with whom she recorded several albums as a child, many of which have gone platinum. Frank Sinatra, a close friend of her father's, was her godfather. She is married to her songwriting partner and producer Justin Stanley, and in late September 2006 gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Sugar.[1]
Nikka Costa recorded her first single 45rpm record in Italy in 1981 with the song '(Out Here) On My Own' (from the musical Fame), which rose to #1 on European charts in September of that year and stayed on the top spots for several weeks. That song and the subsequent album made her very successful in Mexico and Latin America as a child singer (she was only 9 years old at the time).
Although she was relatively well known to the rest of the world, audiences in the United States had not yet been exposed to her until her song 'Like A Feather' was featured in a Tommy Hilfiger television advertising campaign. That exposure coupled with the track's music video quickly helped launch her crossover into the United States music market. The album Everybody Got Their Something managed to garner another radio hit with the title track. The song 'Everybody Got Their Something' has become a crowd favorite and signature track at many of Nikka's subsequent concerts and was also featured extensively in the critically-acclaimed television series Arrested Development. In 2006 Nikka and her husband Justin recorded and performed the theme to the short-lived CBS sitcom 'Courting Alex', which starred Jenna Elfman. Nikka's powerful five octave vocal range is by all accounts astounding due to her ability to deliver a plethora of singing styles which she has demonstrated in her recordings. It was rumoured that she would be playing the part of Janis Joplin in a biopic Gospel According to Janis but the part ultimately went to Zooey Deschanel.
According to Nikka's MySpace page, she is no longer with Virgin records and is currently signed with EMI Records.
“ When people tell me I don't sing like a white chick, all I can think is 'Thank God.' [2] ”
This statement was either ironically idiotic or intending to point out silly group associations that some people make because they don't understand that background has nothing to do with sound. American music is the quintessential example of variability that confounds race, creed or color. One would hope that this 'white chick' would know as much.
[edit] Discography
* Nikka Costa (1981) Did not Chart
* Fairy Tales (Cuentos de Hadas) (1983) Did not Chart
* Here I Am... Yes, It's Me (1989) Did not Chart
* Butterfly Rocket (1996) Did not Chart
* Everybody Got Their Something (2001) US Billboard 200 - #120
* can'tneverdidnothin' (2005) US Billboard 200 - #157
* List of non-album songs
