X Factor contestant, Nicole Blakk, shares her hardships with music so far. She said: “After coming off of X Factor, off the back of being trolled, I did stop making music for a little bit, but I soon realised that you know what I really want to take this seriously and prove myself because I want to take control of showing my real talent.”
Nicole, 20, currently studies music at the Academy of Contemporary Art. and she adapted her style of music to what people would be more attracted to after not receiving much recognition for her previous music in solé. “I wasn’t getting the love that I felt I deserved in the genre I was in so I moved on to rap and I receive more attention now on socials due to being a female in a male-dominated genre, which is rap.”
Nicole, from Birmingham, said: “ Some actual comments I’ve had on my video say stuff like ‘If she was a man the song would be sick, but because she a girl mmm it’s not really that good’ like there is such an obvious disadvantage for women”.
Nicole had not always had an interest in producing music and spoke about her passion for many years being sports. “I played a lot of masculine sports, like football and was the only girl on my football team, which many found strange, which then made me feel empowered as a minority woman.” Nicole’s passion for music first began after her dad passed away and she wrote poems to express her feelings. These poems then progressed into songs when she was in her early teens and further developed her passion for using lyrics to protest and make change.
The 20-year-old is also fluent in many languages and tries to include and explore as many cultures as she can through her music. One of her steps in doing this is creating music that connects to a wider range of cultures and helps not only educate but also bring people from all sorts of different walks of life together. “I have my first ever Punjabi and Hindu song coming out in 2024. One of my social media posts about the song went viral on TikTok. People are not yet used to seeing a girl celebrating and singing in a style that is not typical of her culture, so it got a lot of attention for that. I feel like because I’m from a black background and I’m able to sing in languages fluently that are not necessarily for my race and skin colour, it is really cool and it’s just my way of appreciating a culture.”
Nicole would like to continue to send a message out and speak up for people who do not have the platform to make a change. “There are a lot of songs that I’ll listen to and relate to, so much that I will cry happy tears, and I want people to have that exact same feeling when they are listening to my music”.
