The phone rings on a Saturday afternoon. The connection is a bit weak because the caller is driving on a freeway. Originally we were supposed to meet in person in L.A., but the plans have changed.
“I was expecting we would’ve been able to leave earlier,” says Mia Nicolai, apologizing for having to do the interview by phone.
Nicolai, 28, is a singer-songwriter who was born in the Netherlands but has been living in Los Angeles since 2022. The fact that she had to change the meeting to a phone call reflects the life of an up-and-coming artist in L.A. quite well. She has attended a studio session which took longer than she expected but can’t provide more details about it. Nicolai’s life sounds busy when she starts listing her everyday activities in Los Angeles:
“There’s always some show going on. Always some artist performing somewhere. There are so many studio session opportunities, days on the road… I also go to dancing and acting classes.”
And then there’s the most important thing for artists who have moved to L.A.: Meeting new people, making them remember your name.
“My idea is to build my network and team here but I also want to stay connected with Europe. My producer lives in Norway and I’m going to keep working with him,” she says.
Nicolai definitely isn’t the first European artist to leave home for Los Angeles. As she says, L.A. is “the hub of endless opportunities,” and it’s still a city where aspiring artists all over the world move to, hoping they will be the one who’s going to make it big. Someone always succeeds, and that’s what keeps the dream alive.
However, Nicolai’s story is different compared to most others. She has already performed on a live show that was watched by tens of millions of people. In 2023, she was the Dutch representative in the Eurovision Song Contest, the hugely popular competition between European artists.
Although Eurovision is mostly popular only in European countries, for some singers the competition has been a platform to international stardom. Everyone of course remembers the Swedish superband ABBA, which won Eurovision in 1974. Fewer know that the French-Canadian superstar Celine Dion represented Switzerland and won the competition in 1988, years before her “Titanic” success.
Nicolai didn’t achieve such a massive boost to her career with Eurovision, but she still describes the experience as a great blessing.
“I learned a lot about how to be an artist,” she says. “I got randomly shoved into this crazy big show, and all of a sudden I became a well known person in my home country. I went from nobody to being all over television, radio, newspapers and so on. It was a lot of pressure but it was also a lot of fun. Especially the time we spent in Liverpool for the actual competition was really fun.”
Nicolai got to share the experience with her duet partner Dion Cooper. Together they performed a song called “Burning Daylight,” but they failed to qualify for the final.
Interestingly enough, Nicolai and Cooper didn’t know each other that well before the competition. They hadn’t released any music together before Eurovision – and haven’t done so since. They were paired up by a fellow Dutch Eurovision entrant and winner of the 2019 edition, Duncan Laurence, along with Laurence’s partner Jordan Garfield. Laurence and Garfield were also the co-writers of “Burning Daylight.”
“It was a team effort and I definitely had to do some compromising, which is usual for situations like that,” Nicolai says. “However, after Eurovision I understood that, for me, it’s much more interesting to do music for myself.”
Before participating in Eurovision, Nicolai had already spent years in the music industry. She played violin and piano as a child, and guitar as a teenager. She was also interested in acting, which she studied in Amsterdam.
“I was 21 years old and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do,” she recalls. “I started to feel I actually didn’t want to become an actress.”
The main reason to give up on acting was that Nicolai wanted to be herself instead of playing characters that didn’t always feel interesting enough to her. She had already started singing lessons at the age of 18, and in her acting school she got great compliments about her skills.
“People started telling me I have a great voice. They told me I stood out, and that helped me to focus more on music.”
After Nicolai gave up acting, a lot happened in a few years. First, she met members of Amy Winehouse’s original band. They advised her to move to London to do music. She decided to do so, found a college in London and began studying songwriting. After living in London she moved to Australia for a year where she spent most of the time alone and soul searching, trying to figure out who she really is. After the year she returned briefly to the Netherlands before moving to Los Angeles.
“I believe in progress where you need to find yourself to understand what makes you an authentic person,” she says. “Finding my authenticity has been a crucial part of my life as becoming the artist I am today. I’ve been able to get to know myself better when I’ve been living in many different cultures.”
Since Eurovision, Nicolai has been intensely working on her own music in L.A.. She lists bands and artists who inspire her: Maggie Rogers, Benee, Harry Styles, Coldplay and The Strokes. She has a clear vision about her music.
“I want to spread a message of hope. Let’s make the most of this life. Even though we all struggle and feel insecure sometimes, we shouldn’t let that take us back.”
Nicolai says she doesn’t miss her home country that much. For her, it’s the people who matter the most.
“I’m a present person. When I’m here, I’m fully here. That’s why I don’t miss any specific space,” she says. “Of course, I miss my family and the people who live in the Netherlands. But I have my ways to stay connected with Dutch people and Dutch culture. I like to listen to Dutch audio books.”
Nicolai is currently working on releasing her first EP. She mentions that as her main goal, but of course she hopes she’ll have a chance to spread her music to as wide an audience as possible – and this time she wants to do it as herself, not needing to compromise in a team effort:
“I want to prove I’m an actual artist, not just a Eurovision performer. I want to put my message out to the world,” she says with determination.
“I’m here to stay. I’m not going anywhere.”