NIKI

What eventually became Buzz, the third studio album by singer-songwriter and globally-renowned star NIKI, started with an urgent quake from the innermost core of her being. What surfaced in its wake was a collection of warm, stirring folk-rock songs, which crackle and flare like a bonfire between close confidantes. “I went through an identity crisis,” says the 25-year-old of Buzz. “It took a lot of trial and error, and I just stumbled upon pieces of myself along the way. I named it Buzz because it feels like I'm on the precipice of something about to happen.”

For NIKI, things have been happening progressively since she was a high schooler in Jakarta, Indonesia. As a student at an international academy, she cut her teeth scribbling lovesick poems in English class and performed acoustic guitar covers of American pop songs on YouTube. With a six-string in hand, and her family and classmates cheering her on from the audience, Nicole Zefanya then staked her claim to global stardom as NIKI.