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Nikka Costa extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

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Nikka Costa
Born	1972
Genre(s)	R&B, blue-eyed soul, Pop, rock
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	1981–present
Label(s)	Mushroom 1996-1997 Virgin Records 2001-2006 Stax Records 2008-Present
Website	nikkacosta.com

Domenica "Nikka" Costa (born June 4, 1972, in Tokyo, Japan¹) is an American singer whose music combines elements of funk, soul, and blues. She also had a career as a child singer.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Adult career 3 Discography 4 References

Early life

Nikka Costa was surrounded by music when she was a child. Her father Don Costa was a producer and a musician and had connections with people in the music business. Costa was surrounded by famous musicians at her home and when she was traveling around the world with her father.¹

Costa got her start early. She recorded a single with Hawaiian singer Don Ho at 5 years of age and sang on the White House lawn with Frank Sinatra at the age of 9. ² Costa's career as a recording artist with her own name started in 1981, when she recorded her first 45 rpm single in Italy. The song "(Out Here) On My Own" (from the musical Fame) rose to #1 on European charts in September of that year and stayed on the top spots for several weeks.

Subsequently Costa released her first, self-tiled album Nikka Costa outside the US in 1981. It became a #1 album in Europe and South America and now she traveled around the world to sing.¹ Costa released her second album Fairy tales (cuentos de hadas) in 1983. Her father died of a heart attack soon after it was recorded, but she continued to perform despite the personal loss. Her third album Here I am was released to fulfill a contractual obligation in 1989. Here I am contained sugary pop music, and it topped some charts in Europe.¹

Costa hadn't found out her own style yet, even though she had become a veteran in the music business. She started to search for her style after she graduated from high school. She began writing and listening to Motown artists, finding her own style in the kind of music she heard a lot at home.¹

Adult career

In 1996 she released the album Butterfly Rocket in Australia, and reached the Top 20. The record led to a nomination for ARIA Music Awards Breakthrough Artist in 1996 and Best Female Artist in 1997.^{citation needed}

Her song "Like A Feather" was featured in a Tommy Hilfiger television advertising campaign. That exposure coupled with the track's music video helped launch her U.S. music career. The followup album Everybody Got Their Something managed to garner another radio hit with the title track. In 2005, she released her record can'tneverdidnothin'. She toured with Lenny Kravitz who also performed on the record. The next year, she and her husband Justin recorded and performed the theme to the short-lived CBS sitcom "Courting Alex", which starred Jenna Elfman.

Costa is currently signed with Stax Records.³ Her latest studio album, Pebble to a Pearl, was released on October 14.

Discography

• Nikka Costa (1981) Released in Europe and South America
• Fairy Tales (Cuentos de Hadas) (1983) Released in Europe and South America
• Here I Am... Yes, It's Me (1989) Released in Europe and South America
• Butterfly Rocket (1996) Released only in Australia
• Everybody Got Their Something (2001) US Billboard 200 - #120
• can'tneverdidnothin' (2005) US Billboard 200 - #157
• Pebble to a Pearl (2008) US Billboard 200 - #157

References