Nina Lindberg Nesbitt (born 11 July 1994) is a Scottish singer and songwriter. She is best known for her UK and Scottish top 40 hit singles "Stay Out" and " Selfies". She also earned further recognition with her rendition of

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1967 by the singer and guitarist Peter Green (musician), Peter Green. Green named the band by combining the surnames of the drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and the bassis ...

's " Don't Stop" which was featured in an advert for the department store

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American civil rights activist and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

. Nesbitt released her debut studio album, ''

Peroxide In chemistry, peroxides are a group of Chemical compound, compounds with the structure , where the R's represent a radical (a portion of a complete molecule; not necessarily a free radical) and O's are single oxygen atoms. Oxygen atoms are joined ...

'' on February 2014, which debuted at No. 1 in her native Scotland. Her follow-up records, '' The Sun Will Come Up, the Seasons Will Change'' (2019) and '' Älskar'' (2022), also performed well, with all reaching inside the top 5 in the Scottish Album Charts. In 2024, she formed her own record label Apple Tree Records and released her fourth studio album '' Mountain Music,'' which debuted at No. 3 on Scotland, topped the UK Folk Albums Chart and became her most critically acclaimed record to date. In addition to her solo work, she has written songs for other artists, including Jessie Ware, Olivia Holt, Perrie,

Jasmine Thompson Jasmine Ying Thompson (born 8 November 2000) is a British singer and songwriter. She began her career at the age of ten by filming herself singing and uploading the videos to YouTube. In 2014, she was featured on German deep house producer Robi ...

and the Shires, and has also collaborated with

Passenger A passenger is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The vehicles may be bicycles, ...

. She has supported live artists such as

Stevie Nicks Stephanie Lynn Nicks (born May 26, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, known for her work with the band Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. After starting her career as a duo with her then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham, releasing the album ...

Jake Bugg Jake Bugg (born Jake Edwin Charles Kennedy on 28 February 1994) is an English singer-songwriter. His self-titled debut album, ''Jake Bugg (album), Jake Bugg'', some of which was co-written with songwriter Iain Archer, was released in October 20 ...

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Regarded as a pop icon, he is recognized for his multi-genre musical performances. He was discovered by record executive Scooter Braun in 2008 and subsequently brought to the U ...

, and

Lewis Capaldi Lewis Marc Capaldi (born 7 October 1996) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician. In March 2019, his single "Someone You Loved" (2018) topped the UK Singles Chart where it remained for seven weeks, and in November 2019, it reached number ...

Early life

Nesbitt was born on 11 July 1994 in Livingston, to Mike, a Scottish manager in the defence industry, and Caty, a Swedish social worker. She attended the small village school in Bellsquarry, Livingston. At 12, she moved to Balerno, a suburb of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, and attended Balerno Community High School. She studied music at Stevenson College, Edinburgh. Nesbitt plays the guitar, piano and flute. She began playing the guitar at the age of fifteen. After hearing

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...

's album '' Fearless'' (2008), she uploaded her first cover to

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. A friend from school agreed to record videos of her playing songs for her YouTube channel, for £20 a time. Positive feedback inspired her to continue writing and recording songs in her bedroom, as well as to continue uploading more videos. As a child, she competed in regional and national gymnastic competitions for both Pentland Rhythmic Gymnastics Club and Scotland. She was also part of the Scottish team training for the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

. At age 14, Nesbitt also started modelling, due to her love of fashion. Nesbitt was registered to Colours modelling agency, based in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. She quit modelling before pursuing music as she did not like the industry, claiming it put out a “negative message.” However, Nesbitt has since modelled for Yumi, Jack Wills, Calvin Klein and American Eagle.

Career

2011–2013: Early career

Nesbitt released her debut extended play ''Live Take'' under the independent label N2 Records on December 5, 2011. She then met musician

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran ( ; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

before a radio gig he was scheduled to perform in

. After asking him for advice for aspiring singer-songwriters, and playing him a song on his guitar, she was invited to support him on his European tour. She was also invited to support

Example Example may refer to: * ''exempli gratia'' (e.g.), usually read out in English as "for example" * .example, reserved as a domain name that may not be installed as a top-level domain of the Internet ** example.com, example.net, example.org, an ...

after he heard her cover of his song " Stay Awake". She also appeared in the music video for Sheeran's single " Drunk". Her second EP, ''The Apple Tree'', was released in April 2012 via

AWAL AWAL (shortened from Artists Without A Label) is a global recording business that claims to serve as an alternative to the traditional record label, offering deal structures that provide artists with the resources and expertise of a global label ...

and reached No. 6 on the

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

download charts after receiving airplay on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

, and also reached No. 1 on the iTunes singer/songwriter chart. On 9 October 2012, Nesbitt embarked on her second UK headline tour, to support the release of her debut single, "Boy", under new label,

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

. The tour included support from singer-songwriter Josh Kumra and singer-songwriter Billy Lockett. The tour commenced on 9 October 2012 at Òran Mór, Glasgow, Scotland and finished on 18 October 2012 at

Dingwalls Dingwalls Dancehall (original name at time of opening) is a live music and comedy venue adjacent to Camden Lock, Camden in London. The building itself is one of many industrial Victorian buildings which were put to new use in the 20th centur ...

, London, England. Her third EP, ''Stay Out'', was released on 8 April 2013; its title track of the same name entered the charts at No. 21 in April 2013. Her next EP, ''Way in the World'', was released on 21 July 2013. The title track was released as a single, and the music video released on 12 June 2013. Nesbitt's next single was a cover of the

song, " Don't Stop", and is used in an advert for the department store

. On 6 September 2013, Nesbitt sang " Flower of Scotland" at

Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

before

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

played

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

in a Group A World Cup Qualifier.

2013–2017: ''Peroxide''

On 25 November 2013, Nesbitt announced on her

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

pages that her debut studio album, ''

'', would be released on 17 February 2014 in the United Kingdom. Nesbitt did an album signing tour around the UK, starting in Edinburgh on the day the album was released. ''Peroxide'' entered the

UK Album Charts The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Offici ...

at number 1 in Scotland and 11 in the rest of the UK. The lead single from the album, " Selfies" was released on 9 February 2014. She released her fifth EP, ''Nina Nesbitt'', exclusively in the US on 1 April 2014. In 2016, Nesbitt announced the release of her newest EP, ''Modern Love'', featuring her "radical new look." She also announced a three-date UK Tour, that took place from 26 to 28 January. Following its World Exclusive on Radio 1, her single "Chewing Gum" became available for download on

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

on 10 January. On 27 April, Nesbitt performed at the Young Scot Awards at Edinburgh's International Conference Centre. In June, she started the project ''Songs I Wrote for You'', where she asked her fans to send her their personal love stories and she would write a song about it. In October 2016, she released a five-track EP titled ''Life in Colour'' with the songs of the project under her own label.

2016–2019: ''The Sun Will Come Up, the Seasons Will Change''

In May 2016, Nesbitt disclosed that she had left her record label and was now an independent artist. In November 2016, Nesbitt signed a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...

with indie label

Cooking Vinyl Cooking Vinyl is a British independent record label, based in Acton, London, England. It was founded in 1986 by former manager and booking agent Martin Goldschmidt and his business partner Pete Lawrence. Goldschmidt remains the current owner an ...

. On 2 July 2017, she served as a supporting act for

during

British Summer Time During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the United Kingdom is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from UTC+00:00 to UTC+01:00, so that mornings have one hour less daylight, and eve ...

in Hyde Park,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. She released a new single, "The Moments I'm Missing", on 14 July 2017. On 8 September 2017 she released her next single, "The Best You Had''"'', which was made Greg James' 'Tune of the Week' on Radio 1 and added to the Radio 1 playlist.

later added "The Best You Had" to her 'Favourite Songs' playlist on

and

, while actress Chloë Grace Moretz tweeted about the song to her followers. Nesbitt then released " Somebody Special" as the third single from her second album. In October 2017, she played two intimate shows in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. In December 2017, Nesbitt won the 'Evolution Award' at the SSE Scottish Music Awards. Between March and April 2018, Nesbitt toured the United States with

. She also revealed new track "Psychopath" for the launch of

's 'Louder Together', a program bringing artists together to collaborate on an original Spotify Singles song in the spirit of community, empowerment and inspiration. The titular track "The Sun Will Come Up, the Seasons Will Change" was released as a

promotional single A promotional recording, promo, or plug copy is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as mu ...

in May. Nesbitt has said that it is "like a

self-help Self-help or self-improvement is "a focus on self-guided, in contrast to professionally guided, efforts to cope with life problems" —economically, physically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. When ...

song and she hopes that people can listen to it in times of need and be reminded that things are constantly changing". The song was also featured in an episode of ''

Life Sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are c ...

'', an American television series. In summer 2018, Nesbitt played twelve festivals in the UK, and also performed at

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

, Midem and The Great Escape. She later sold out three consecutive London shows (at

Heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

, The Islington and Camden Assembly), and supported acts such as

James Arthur James Andrew Arthur (born 2 March 1988) is an English singer and songwriter. He rose to fame after winning the ninth series of ''The X Factor'' in 2012. His debut single, a cover of Shontelle's " Impossible", was released by Syco Music aft ...

, Jesse McCartney,

MAX Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

and

on tours. On 10 August 2018, Nesbitt released her fourth single from the album, " Loyal to Me", which was produced by Fraser T. Smith. In October 2018, Nesbitt announced that her second album, '' The Sun Will Come Up, the Seasons Will Change'' will be released on 1 February 2019 through

''The Sun Will Come Up, the Seasons Will Change'' was released on 1 February 2019, to a positive critic reaction.

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

awarded the record four stars and

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

gave it three, whilst CelebMix awarded the album five stars saying, "February is far too early to talk about albums of the year. But, really, is it going to get better than this?". On the same day, Nesbitt also released a new music video for her fifth single from the album, titled "Is It Really Me You're Missing?". Nesbitt then embarked on a headlining tour to support ''The Sun Will Come Up, the Seasons Will Change'', with the North American and UK legs spanning from February to April. She also toured in Australia and New Zealand from 28 May to 1 June. In March 2019, it was announced that Nesbitt would be supporting Jess Glynne on the American leg of the Always in Between Tour.

2020–present: ''Älskar'' and ''Mountain Music''

Leading up to the release of her third studio album, '' Älskar'', on 2 September 2022, Nesbitt released several singles including "Summer Fling" and "Life's a Bitch" (which are featured as bonus tracks on the deluxe version of the album). Further songs released prior to the albums official release that are included on the standard edition of the album include: "When You Lose Someone", "Dinner Table", "Pressure Makes Diamonds", "No Time (For My Life to Suck)", and "Colours of You". Beginning in November 2022, Nesbitt will tour her album throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. On March 4 2024, Nesbitt announced the launching of her own record label Apple Tree Records, along with the release of a double single "Pages" and "On The Run" both serving as the label first releases, as well as the first tracks of her upcoming fourth studio album. On April 22, she announced that the record was named '' Mountain Music'' and was set to be released on September 27. On July 2, Nesbitt was announced as the opening act for

concerts in the United Kingdom. Later on, in July 24, She announced she was going on a headliner tour in the UK, to promote the record with dates for October. '' Mountain Music'' was released on September 27, to generally positive reviews. On October 29 2024, Nesbitt served as a guest for

Billboard Magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to th ...

where she wrote a column about her experience owning a record label. On November 3 2024, Nesbitt was honored with the SGW3 Independent Icon Award by the Scottish Music Awards.

Philanthropy

Nesbitt was part of the mothers2mothers fund raising dinner, raising half a million pounds for the charity. She also attended the Women in the World Summit, discussing the impact of

body image Body image is a person's thoughts, feelings and perception of the aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of their own body. The concept of body image is used in several disciplines, including neuroscience, psychology, medicine, psychiatry, psycho ...

in the Internet era. She has worked with brands such as

Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer. In 1968, he launched the company that later became Calvin Klein. In addition to clothing, he has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewellery. ...

and American Eagle and was chosen to attend the Women in the World Summit alongside

Nicole Kidman Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an Australian and American actress and producer. Known for Nicole Kidman on screen and stage, her work in film and television productions across many genres, she has consistently ranked among the world ...

and Cara Delevingne.

Personal life

Nesbitt was in a relationship with singer-songwriter

in 2012. She appeared in his music video for " Drunk" in January 2012. She wrote most of her album ''

'' (2014) about Sheeran, while she was the subject of Sheeran's songs "Nina", "Friends" and "

Photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitivity, photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. Th ...

". Nesbitt is well-known for being an ex of Sheeran’s due to the publicity around the relationship at the time, and claims she finds it ‘disheartening’ that people associate her with this rather than her music. Nesbitt's parents divorced in 2024, and no longer live in Edinburgh. Nesbitt described their split as “a big moment, a big change” and a “huge part of what (she) was going through.” In 2016, Nesbitt reported that two people were stalking her. Nesbitt is managed by Vicky Dowdall, who is co-founder of Nesbitt label ''Apple Tree Records''. In December 2012, shortly after her breakup from Sheeran, Nina started dating Mike Duce from the band Lower than Atlantis. They broke up in early 2013. Nesbitt wrote song ''Last December'' about her early relationship with Duce. Nesbitt and Duce got back together in 2017, after he took her to a

Foo Fighters The Foo Fighters are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Seattle in 1994. Initially founded as a one-man project by former Nirvana (band), Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, the band comprises vocalist/guitarist Grohl, bassist Nate Mendel, gu ...

gig. He is also the subject of her later songs ''Summer Fling'', and ''Colours of You''. Nesbitt had a cat called Bob Marley, after the singer songwriter. She later gave up Bob Marley to her mum, Caty. Nesbitt now has a Pomeranian dog called Timmy that she got during

lockdown A lockdown () is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison protocol that us ...

Discography

* ''

'' (2014) * '' The Sun Will Come Up, the Seasons Will Change'' (2019) * '' Älskar'' (2022) * '' Mountain Music'' (2024)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nesbitt, Nina 1994 births Living people Musicians from Edinburgh People educated at Balerno Community High School 21st-century Scottish women singers Scottish pop singers Scottish people of Swedish descent Scottish women singer-songwriters Scottish singer-songwriters Universal Music Group artists Island Records artists