Nico & Vinz are a Norwegian duo consisting of Kahouly Nicolay "Nico" Sereba from

Holmlia Holmlia is a neighborhood in Oslo, Norway with around 12,000 residents. It is located in the south-western part of Søndre Nordstrand, the southernmost borough in Oslo. The neighborhood is served by Holmlia Station on the Østfold Line, which ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

and Vincent "Vinzy V" Dery from

Lambertseter Lambertseter () is a suburb of the city of Oslo, Norway, and is part of the borough of Nordstrand. Lambertseter was built over a short period starting from 1951, and was the very first modern suburb of Oslo. A Tram line was built to the neighborho ...

, Oslo. They formed in 2010 as Envy but changed their name to Nico & Vinz by the end of 2012. They are commonly associated with their biggest hit single "

Am I Wrong "Am I Wrong" is a song by Norwegian musical duo Nico & Vinz (previously known as Envy). Produced by William Wiik Larsen ("Will IDAP"), the song was initially released as a digital download single in Norway on 12 April 2013, credited to the duo's ...

", which peaked at number 2 in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

and Sweden, and number 1 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Music career

2010–11: Formation and debut mixtape

Nicolay Sereba of

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

- Ivorian origin and Vincent Dery of

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

ian origin created their music as a fusion of genres as diverse as pop to reggae to soul, having been exposed by the various musical influences of their parents with whom they did recurring trips to the West Coast of Africa. The duo was launched as Envy with its main debut appearance at Emergenza Festival in 2011.Nico & Vinz Biography , MTV.com
MTV They won first place at the Taubertal Open Air Festival World's "Emergenza Final" for new emerging artists. Following that success, the duo released the mixtape ''Dreamworks: Why Not Me'' under the name Envy. The materials were also made available online through

WiMP Wimp, WIMP, or Wimps may refer to: Science and technology * Weakly interacting massive particle, a hypothetical particle of dark matter * WIMP (computing), the "window, icon, menu, pointer" paradigm * WIMP (software bundle), the web stack of Wind ...

. Sereba speaks

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and French. Dery speaks English, Norwegian and

Dagaare Dagaare is the language of the Dagaaba people of Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast. It has been described as a dialect continuum that also includes Waale and Birifor. Dagaare language varies in dialect stemming from other family languages i ...

. In June 2011, the duo released their debut single " One Song" under the name Envy. The song peaked to number 19 on the

Norwegian Singles Chart VG-lista is a Norwegian record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide chart ...

2011: ''The Magic Soup and the Bittersweet Faces''

Envy released their debut studio album ''

The Magic Soup and the Bittersweet Faces ''The Magic Soup and the Bittersweet Faces'' is the only studio album by Norwegian hip hop duo Envy, and was released under that name before they later changed it to Nico & Vinz. It was released in Norway on April 27, 2012. The album has peaked to ...

'' on April 27, 2012, peaking to number 37 on the

Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista is a Norwegian record chart. It is presented weekly in the newspaper '' VG''. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continents around the world. The data are collected by Nie ...

. " One Song" was released as the lead single from the album peaking at number 19 on the

. It was followed by "Go Loud" released as a follow-up second and last single from the album.

2013–14: Breakthrough and "Am I Wrong" international success

In April 2013, they released "

" after the duo changed their name from Envy to Nico & Vinz, in coordination with their signing to

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

to avoid being confused with other artists with a similar name. With international success of the single, the duo changed the credits of the single to the new adopted name. The song peaked to number 2 on the

and also peaked to number 2 on the

Danish Singles Chart Hitlisten, also known as Tracklisten, is a Danish top 40 record chart that is updated every Thursday midnight on the website hitlisten.nu. The weekly Danish singles chart Track Top-40 combines the 40 best-selling tracks from legal music downloads ...

and number 2 on the

Swedish Singles Chart Sverigetopplistan (, lit. "the Sweden top list") is the Swedish national record chart, formerly known as Topplistan (1975–1997) and Hitlistan (1998–2007) and known by its current name since October 2007, based on sales data from the Swedish ...

. It also reached number one on the Mainstream Top 40 chart. It was followed up with another release " In Your Arms" which also charted in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

for "Am I Wrong" was directed and edited by African Folk music composer Kavar Singh. The video for "Am I Wrong" was filmed in

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

and at the

Victoria Falls Victoria Falls ( Lozi: ''Mosi-oa-Tunya'', "The Smoke That Thunders"; Tonga: ''Shungu Namutitima'', "Boiling Water") is a waterfall on the Zambezi River in southern Africa, which provides habitat for several unique species of plants and anim ...

between

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

and

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

. It was put together in a deliberate effort to present a positive side of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

when the image of the continent is too often mired in negative news stories. The music video was released via

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

on June 20, 2013. In early 2014, Nico & Vinz received the European Border Breakers Award (EBBA) at Eurosonic Festival, performed at the Spellemann Awards, completed a

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

n tour, and launched "Am I Wrong" worldwide. When "Am I Wrong" made its American radio debut in April 2014, it was the number one most added record at the

mainstream radio Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by ...

format and it peaked at number 4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. They performed "Am I Wrong" at the

iHeartRadio Music Festival The iHeartRadio Music Festival is a two-day music concert festival held every year in September since 2011 by iHeartRadio along the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. From 2011 to 2015, the festival was held at the MGM Gran ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, as well as for the television show '' Dancing with the Stars'' in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Their album ''

Black Star Elephant ''Black Star Elephant'' is the only studio album by Norwegian duo Nico & Vinz and their first album following the name change from "Envy". It was released in Australia on 16 September 2014, and on 14 October 2014 in the United States. It contains ...

'' was released in September 2014, followed by the single " When the Day Comes" in October 2014. Nico & Vinz were featured on a track of

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta ( , ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and music producer. He has over 10 million album and 65 million single sales globally, with more than 10 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one D ...

's 2014 album ''

Listen Listen may refer to: * The action of listening * Central auditory system listening is how the brain processes what you hear * Listening behaviour types in human communication Computing * LISTEN, a TCP connection state on the server side indi ...

'', named " Lift Me Up" along with South African group

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Ladysmith Black Mambazo are a South African male choral group singing in the local vocal styles of '' isicathamiya'' and '' mbube''. They became known internationally after singing with Paul Simon on his 1986 album '' Graceland'', and have won ...

. Their song "Find a Way", featuring

Emmanuel Jal Emmanuel Jal (born Jal Jok 1 January 1980) is a South Sudanese-Canadian artist, actor, former child soldier, and political activist. His autobiography, ''War Child: A Child Soldier's Story'', was published in 2009. Childhood Jal was born to ...

, is featured in the film ''

The Good Lie ''The Good Lie'' is a 2014 American drama film written by Margaret Nagle and directed by Philippe Falardeau. The film stars Reese Witherspoon in the title role, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal, and Corey Stoll. ''The Good Lie'' was s ...

''. "When the Day Comes" is featured the

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

game '' FIFA 15''.

2015–present: Extended plays ''Cornerstone'' & ''Elephant in the Room''

In October 2015, the duo released the EP ''Cornerstone''. " That's How You Know", featuring

Kid Ink Brian Todd Collins (born April 1, 1986), known professionally as Kid Ink, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer from Los Angeles. He released his debut independent album ''Up & Away (Kid Ink album), Up & Away'' in 2012, f ...

and

Bebe Rexha Bleta Rexha (; born August 30, 1989), known professionally as Bebe Rexha ( ), is an American pop singer and songwriter. After signing with Warner Records in 2013, Rexha received songwriting credits on Eminem's single " The Monster" (which lat ...

, was released as the first single from the EP and peaked at number 2 in both Norway and Australia. They also featured in Alesso's song "I Wanna Know". Nico & Vinz then released "Hold It Together" in January 2016, which is taken from their third studio album, due later in 2016. The second single from ''Cornerstone'' was "Praying to a God". In November 2017, Nico & Vinz released their new EP ''Elephant In The Room'' including their new single "Intrigued" and "Listen". They are working on a new album, as they told in 2019 in a podcast of LipRoll.

Honours

*2014:

Spellemannprisen Spellemannprisen, often referred to as the Norwegian Grammy Awards in English, is a Norwegian music award presented to Norwegian musicians. The award was established by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an organizat ...

as this year's

Spellemann Spellemann is a folk music album by Norwegian singer Elisabeth Andreassen. It was released in Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the wester ...

Discography

Studio albums * ''

'' (2012) * ''

'' (2014) Mixtapes * ''Dreamworks: Why Not Me'' (2010) Extended plays * ''Cornerstone'' (2015) * ''Elephant in the room'' (2017)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nico and Vinz Spellemannprisen winners Norwegian musical duos Norwegian hip hop groups English-language singers from Norway Norwegian people of Ghanaian descent Norwegian people of Ivorian descent Afrobeat musicians