Nicole Issa is an Indie-pop Artist born and raised in South-West Sydney, Australia. Starting from humble beginnings busking and performing around the Sydney live music scene, Nicole began to pick up traction when it came to her musicality and songwriting. This brought her to work with council organisations writing songs for their youth campaigns. 'Relevant' was created to bring awareness for domestic violence victims and currently has over 600k views on YouTube.
After being selected as a finalist for X-Change Songs program, a songwriting mentorship curated by Lynley White Smith (Operations Manager, Studios 301), Nicole released her debut single ‘Home’, which gained immediate support from radio and blogs including Sydney’s FBi Radio station, Triple J Unearthed, 'The Western' 'Milky' and notably 'Life Without Andy’ where Nicole’s heartfelt songwriting abilities were appreciated.
“Nicole’s power as a storyteller at its strongest as she utterly outlines her acknowledgment of her need to move on along with the ensuing pain that results from such an action”- Life Without Andy
Recently Nicole released ‘Feel Ok’, a surprisingly uplifting track given its theme of the conflicting feelings of love and resentment that arise at the end of a relationship. Co-written and produced with local phenomenon Chelsea Warner (Urthboy, Anieszka), it’s a sonic journey through pain and isolation that manages to offer hope in the soaring instrumentation that’s becoming Nicole’s trademark. This release lead her to collaborate with BLOOM SYDNEY and sell out her debut live show.
Since ‘Feel Ok’ Nicole has been making her mark on the songwriting circuit co-writing and featuring on Mr. Rhodes track ‘Every Part of Me’ and was a part of APRA AMCOS’ famous SONGHUBS at SOUND WEST conference (Curated by L-FRESH the LION). She has also supported fellow pop artists AYA YVES and YORKE on their Sydney shows.
Outside of music, Nicole has started a movement for Pop music collaborating with fellow artist JËVA in a new radio show.
‘TALL POP’ is one of its kind being the only pop-centered radio show on FBi radio.
“The goal of Tall Pop is to create a scene in Australia to highlight local pop acts that struggle to get attention from commercial radio stations. Being pop artists ourselves, JËVA and I questioned why Non-Top 40 international pop artists are selling out huge venues in Australia, but our local acts struggled to do the same.”
Tall Pop is creating a community around pop music that hasn’t been seen in Australia as of yet.
Overall, Nicole is an authentically raw artist, who constantly pushes the edge in her songwriting, displaying honesty and truth.
"I just want to write my truth and have people hear my story. I hope this small part of my story brings joy to other people's lives"