Indonesian singer-songwriter Niki Zefanya has embarked on an international tour in support of her fourth studio album, Buzz, which dropped on August 9 via 88Rising Records, a record label primarily representing Asian American artists, including the likes of Joji, Jackson Wang, and others.
Despite Niki Zefanya, stylized as NIKI, only being 25-years-old, she’s reached an impressive level of global notoriety that many artists at her caliber aspire to. From 2022 to 2023, NIKI’s debut headlining concert tour, ‘Nicole World Tour,’ visited over 40 cities across four continents, and her songwriting has garnered her over 3 billion streams worldwide. At 15-years-old, she won a contest to perform as the opening act for Taylor Swift’s ‘The Red Tour’ during its stop in Jakarta, NIKI’s hometown.
NIKI’s tour continued with two stops at the famous Greek Theater in Los Angeles on Friday, October 11 and Saturday, October 12, featuring support from That Band Honey and Allison Ponthier.
Opening with a pre-chorus to the title track off her new album made perfect sense to kick off the evening, as the sentiment of Buzz can be perfectly encapsulated in one word: “anticipation.” Described in a press release, the meaning of the project is described as “the feeling of being on the precipice of something…the buzzing of an amp signals that music is starting, and a buzzy giddy feeling emerges at the start of a new romance.”
NIKI knew not to give it all away at the very start of the show: a 45 second clip or so was all the audience got of the title track until the very last performance of the evening, as the band took the stage and broke out in one of the grooviest songs off Buzz, titled “Too Much Of A Good Thing.” Co-written and co-produced by indie pundit Ethan Gruska, “Too Much Of A Good Thing” is a smooth and sexy banger with an extremely catchy bass line, further solidifying that the concept of ‘anticipation’ is the backbone of BUZZ. Next up is a trio of songs that all encapsulate the frustrations of loving someone who can’t love you back (or simply doesn’t want to), with “Colossal Loss,” “Backburner,” and “Focus,” all tinged with a slight feeling of self-sabotage.
“Is this what the kids call petty? I’m happy to report that petty feels pretty awesome” Niki says in the second verse of “Colossal Loss,” a line that definitely got a response from the literal kids sitting around me: NIKI’s fandom definitely skews younger, including pre-teens and those in their early 20s (I have just recently turned 30-years-old, and I can feel the age gap seeping through my bones at 95% of shows I go to). This song is certainly one of the highlights of Buzz, giving NIKI the opportunity to in fact, embrace the pettiness. What’s more fun than leaning into that? “Backburner” is another massive song from NIKI, currently sitting at 129 million streams on Spotify alone, a slower song but one that still got audience members excited, and “Focus” features one of my favorite lyrics off of Buzz: “No guys I swear! He’s not emotionally unavailable, he’s just traumatized!”
It’s evident that many of the attendees at The Greek Theater on Friday evening have been along for NIKI’s journey to international acclaim for several years: songs like “La La Lost You” and “lowkey” were the standout moments of the evening for the majority of the crowd to show off their vocal skills, both of which are singles that were released back in 2019.
Anyone who’s familiar with NIKI’s music know that most of it is inherently sad and slow, so it’s pretty likely that the energy of the night would be more lowkey (pun intended), but my only real complaint of the evening (okay, I’ll address my second one in a bit), is that there were too many ballads and/or acoustic moments in a row during the middle of the set, which certainly brought down the momentum of the performance for me. This isn’t just a NIKI thing, I don’t prefer this order of songs for any live show I attend. Luckily, it didn’t overshadow NIKI’s vocal performance, which was maintained as solid, on-pitch, and emotional from start to finish.
Additionally, I’m always the person who would much rather hear another original song from an artist than a cover, which is my second complaint of the evening. Despite the crowd (and myself), enjoying NIKI’s version of Katy Perry’s “The One That Got Away,” I’d much rather have heard her song “Before,” (probably my favorite by her overall), which unfortunately only got about 30 seconds of recognition as NIKI chose to mash it up with the song “Heirloom Pain,” another beautifully written song about generational trauma that I would have absolutely loved to hear the full version of!
All in all, NIKI’s ability to establish herself as a seasoned singer, songwriter, and performer has made her a globally successful artist that may be more well-known in other parts of the world, but two nights at one of Los Angeles’ most famous concert venues isn’t too shabby, either. With just a few years of releases under her belt, and Taylor Swift’s stamp of approval from ten years ago, it’s evident that NIKI’s career is just beginning.
Photos by Natt Lim
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