Niki 'Blacked Out' Opening for Taylor Swift 10 Years Ago. Now She's Headlining Her Own World Tour (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Niki Zefanya.Photo:Annie Lai

Annie Lai

In 2014, 15-year-old Nicole Zefanya opened forTaylor Swiftwhen her Red Tour stopped in Jakarta, Indonesia.

“I definitely blacked out,” confesses Zefanya, now 25, who later adopted the stage name Niki. “I don’t remember the onstage part, to be honest. I remember walking on and then walking off.”

A decade later, she has her own crowd of fans singing along to every word. The Indonesian artist moved to the United States at age 18 to pursue music and signed to the predominantly Asian American record label 88rising. Her songs have garnered over 3.3 billion total streams on Spotify across two EPs and two albums, along with several collaborations and an end credits track for Marvel’sShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Soon, Niki will embark on her second world tour to support her third studio albumBuzz, which released on Friday, Aug. 9. The 41-stop tour spans North America, Europe, Asia and Australia and will feature songs from her latest LP, a 13-track exploration of “being lost in your 20s,” she says.

The cover of ‘Buzz’.Courtesy of NIKI/88rising

Courtesy of NIKI/88rising

A homebody at heart, Niki used to isolate herself after a concert and then sleep. When she began to explore the tour stops and hang out with friends while touring, she says it “changed everything.”

“It’s really difficult to establish a sense of routine and balance,” she says of being on tour. “You have to eat as well as you can, as regularly as you can. And keep yourself mentally healthy.”

Niki adds, “If you’re going through a hard time personally, and then you have to show up on stage and give everyone a good show, that also can feel really mentally taxing.”

Several songs onBuzz, like “Blue Moon” and “Strong Girl,” chronicle Niki’s emotions following the end of her four-year relationship with musician Jacob Ray. As “Blue Moon” goes, “Four full laps around the sun / We wouldn’t admit that we were done.”

CreatingBuzzhelped her process the split, but she also had to confront existential questions to start writing the album.

“When you’re comfortable, you’re not really allowing yourself the opportunity to grow,” says the songwriter, who turned to her therapist, family and best friends to wade through the discomfort of the breakup — and from “just living life.”

(L-R) Maisie Peters and Niki Zefanya.Niki Zefanya/Instagram

Niki Zefanya/Instagram

Another good friend, 24-year-old pop singerMaisie Peters, lives in the United Kingdom. The two became long-distance friends when they were teenagers posting covers and original music on their YouTube channels. Last month, Niki and Peters — who have stayed in close contact — reunited when the “Every Summertime” musician visited London.

“It’s meant everything,” Niki says. “To this day, we still keep up with each other and are so excited to see each other win. I think it’s a really beautiful story. What were the odds that we were both YouTube girlies and then we both got signed?”

The parallels in their career trajectories don’t end there. Niki and Peters played Lollapalooza in Chicago on back-to-back days in 2023. On Aug. 19, Peters will join Niki among the ranks of Swift’s openers when she performs onThe Eras Tourin London — a secret Peters kept from her friend.

“I was like, how dare you!” Niki jests. “She’s been such a vocal Swiftie online, and oh my God, I’m so happy for her.”

(L-R) Taylor Swift and Niki Zefanya.Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty; Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty; Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Swift, 34, still influences the young pop star, from her focus on songwriting to her business-savvy thinking.

“She’s just so smart,” Niki raves. “I respect this empire that she’s literally built forever, and it just keeps growing.”

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WithBuzz, she comes to terms with the idea that life is “constantly messy.” For example, she still grapples with having her heart in two countries. Although she owns a house, a dog and a lush garden in Los Angeles, much of her family remains in Indonesia, but she makes an effort to regularly visit them.

“This is just my life, and I’m so lucky to have two homes,” she affirms.

There are lessons she is still learning from family. The twelfth track offBuzz, “Heirloom Pain,” touches on the inheritance of intergenerational trauma from parent to child. For Niki, she seeks to overcome her family’s tendency to prioritize others at the expense of their own dreams.

“They’ve always been afraid to take up space,” she explains. “I actively try to unlearn that. … My parents and grandparents, they survived through so much and they lived so much life so that I am able to live mine, and now I think I’m just trying to learn to comfortably take up space.”

source: people.com