“Water” is the debut single by singer-songwriter Nikena, and writing it captured a moment when she turned her own tide around. “It came at a time when I was going through a breakup and not in the best space mentally. I wanted to take myself out of that moment. The melody came to me and I wrote it. The song has helped me in my healing process,” she says. Fueled by a club-ready beat and Nikena’s sultry vocals dripped over melodies, “Water” makes it impossible to stay in a bad mood. Nikena was born in Jamaica and moved to New York City in 1999. She has “been singing since I could speak. I’ve been writing for a few years now. I’ve always sung in talent shows or in choirs. Just two years ago, I decided to take it seriously and perfect my craft in writing.” She says. She’s taken inspiration from soulful divas like Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, as well as Jamaican great Bob Marley.
Those Reggae influences appear in her music now, often entwined with R&B and Pop sounds. Despite amassing a number of songs, “Water” is the one that finally motivated Nikena to start recording music. “Before ‘Water,’ I was a little intimidated because I can be shy at times”. She told herself that she will not hold off on recording any longer, that she would just go out there and get it done. It was yet another gift from “Water,” energizing the singer-songwriter to look ahead to more songs. She hopes to release albums full of love songs, confidence-boosting songs, dance songs, and her Caribbean style. “Part of the chorus says, ‘my cup is runneth over.’ That could be applied to love or to any other situation in life. You can listen to it and think about love, but you can also use it for encouragement and be happy about wherever you are in life,” says the artist.
The song is more up-tempo and full of romance than listeners might expect from a breakup song. But “Water” isn’t about breaking up; it’s about how good it is to pick yourself up from any loss and enjoy the good things to come. “The mind is a powerful thing. You tell yourself that this is not where you want to be. You want to be somewhere else and you put yourself there mentally, and the outcome is amazing,” Nikena says. Nikena’s own experience with the song mirrors how she wants her listeners to feel. “I’ve always been very loving, caring and compassionate. I always want to have a good message in my music, and I want to make a difference in someone’s life. I want to put people in a better place,” she says.
