Niia

Niia is a singer and songwriter with a background in jazz, pop, hip-hop, and classical music, all of which informs her sophisticated, atmospheric indie soul music. Her full-length major-label debut, I, appeared in 2017 with a stylized indie electronic take on smooth R&B, an approach that also populated 2021′s If I Should Die EP. She leaned into a more jazz-inflected, experimental neo-soul on 2022′s intimate Offair: Mouthful of Salt and incorporated Laurel Canyon influences into 2023′s more passionate Bobby Deerfield.
The granddaughter of an opera singer with several other musicians in the family, Niia Bertino was born and raised in Massachusetts and learned classical piano from her mother. She started singing at the age of 13 and a year later accepted an invitation to enroll in a summer program at the Berklee College of Music. After graduating from high school, Bertino moved to New York City, where she briefly studied jazz vocals at the New School.
While in New York, the singer met Wyclef Jean, leading to a featured spot on his 2007 single “Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)” alongside Lil Wayne and Akon. She was credited as simply Niia. The song reached the Top 15 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and Canada and resulted in performances on Late Show with David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, among other national TV appearances. She began to upload a series of performances and covers, including one of Cher’s “Bang Bang,” and in 2011 she performed highlights from James Bond soundtracks in concert with a small orchestra. NIIA released the stand-alone single “Made for You,” a noir-ish ballad with piano, strings, and electronic textures, in 2013. Displaying a similarly jazzy, atmospheric pop, the Generation Blue EP was released in October 2014 by the Something Local label. While preparing her full-length debut, she lent vocals to albums by electronic artists such as Lee Bannon (2015′s Pattern of Excel) and the Range (2016′s Potential). Led by the sultry single “Hurt You First,” the jazz- and R&B-inflected I arrived on Atlantic Records in 2017.
The major-label partnership didn’t last, and Niia went the independent route on 2020′s even more stylistically eclectic, breakup-inspired II: La Bella Vita, which she co-produced with I’s Hannibal. Increasingly taking control in the studio, she helmed the next year’s If I Should Die EP on her own. Its featured guests included Girl Ultra, Laura Lee, and 9m88. Artists including jazz harpist Brandee Younger and bassist Aidan Carroll contributed to her next long-player, the more experimental Offair: Mouthful of Salt, which incorporated neo-soul, downtempo and ambient electronics, and chamber music into its intimate sound. Following in June 2023, her fourth album, Bobby Deerfield, continued in an experimental vein while dialing up the volume and passion. Inspired thematically by the 1970s Al Pacino film of the same name, and stylistically by her new home base of Laurel Canyon, it was produced by Jonathan Wilson (Angel Olsen, Father John Misty). ~ Marcy Donelson