Colombian-born country singer-songwriter Lala Nicole, who now lives in Marietta, performed a half-hour set at the Welcome to South Cobb festival yesterday at the Eddy at Riverview Landing, on a stage overlooking the Chattahoochee River.
Like the words to many country songs, Nicole’s lyrics revolve around relationships, and two of the songs she performed at the festival were about the breakup of one toxic relationship.
After her set, the Courier spoke with her, standing on the boat landing on the river.
Nicole was asked to tell a little about her life and her music.
“My name is Lala Nicole and I am a singer-songwriter,” she said. “I was born in Colombia, the country, and I moved to the United States when I was around 12 years old.”
“And that was the first time I also picked up the guitar, and I taught myself how to play the guitar and also the piano afterwards,” she said.
“It was kind of like the way that I coped with being in a new country.” she said. “And I didn’t have many friends when I came here, actually, not at all, like maybe one.”
“And so my guitar became my best friend, and then the songs that I would learn and sang just kind of became a part of who I am,” Nicole said.
“I was really inspired by country music,” she said.
“I didn’t like my accent when I came here,” she said. “I didn’t want to be more even more different than I already felt. So I learned the American quote-unquote accent through actually just listening to a bunch of country music.”
“So if you hear me say ‘y’all’ or something like that, it’s because it’s very natural to me to now say,” Nicole said. “There’s a little bit of rock in it just because I am angsty a little bit.”
Asked where in the U.S. she had lived before moving to Marietta, she said “I moved to Florida first, and then I stayed there for most of my life, middle school, high school and everything.”
“And then I went to Nashville for a year and a half. And that’s where I really got to know the music industry like I know it now,” she said.
“And that was my first encounter really, with a lot of artists. It was my first time really seeing artists so close by and I was like, I was extremely starstruck like crazy,” she said. “I am like, the biggest fan girl, which is what makes me really love music, obviously.”
“It was crazy to me like seeing my idols I love just walking around, like going to a coffee shop. And I was like, Oh my God, that’s like Shania Twain like just walking around!”
Asked what musical influences she had, she mentioned Taylor Smith, Miley Cyrus, Shakira, Kelsea Ballerini, Maren Morris, and “a lot of Spanish artists … that’s something I grew up on.”
She talked about the process of building her self-confidence as an artist.
“I never thought that like I could do this kind of genre or this kind of music. Honestly, I was self limiting myself, just because I didn’t see people like me in the genre,” she said. “And it wasn’t until I moved out of Nashville, and I kind of worked on myself and I really started doing self improvement, getting more confidence.”
“But I realized like, wait, hold on, like, it doesn’t matter what I look like, it just matters that my music is good,” said Nicole.
To see and hear more performances by Lala Nicole, visit her Youtube channel by following this link.
