News Little Nikki

: Little Nikki
Based: London
Listen: ‘Intro Intro’
Similar to: Rita Ora

If history tells us anything, it’s that girl-band members going it alone turn out to be a bit of a mixed bag. So it stands former Soundgirl Little Nikki in good stead that her solo material already feels infinitely more keyed into the ‘now’ than her group ever did. It seems premature to throw around phrases like ‘the next Rita Ora’, but there’s that same sense of insta-marketability to the teen that has already seen her wowing audiences in support slots for Rizzle Kicks.

Taking the precocious bratitude and chart-friendly allure of Cher Lloyd and allying it with a dizzying electro-garage backbeat, Nikki’s taster single ‘Intro Intro’ becomes a kind of honorary theme tune for herself; arms aloft Primark-pop that sounds like it’s gorging on its own sugar-rush.

The track’s video sees her scoffing sweets like her life depends on it, downing Red Bull, dashing through a supermarket, baseball bat in hand – a three minute snapshot into street-smart teenager-dom. If there’s anything to substantiate Little Nikki’s brilliance as a potential popstar-in-the-making, it’s the sheer energy she gives off – a rare joie de vivre almost falling over itself in an attempt to make itself heard. ‘Little’ by name, certainly, but there’s nothing diminutive about this eighteen year old’s evident desire to succeed.