Chelsea Lee Nikkel (born September 4, 1985), better known by her

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

Princess Chelsea, is a New Zealand producer, musician and visual artist. She was a member of

twee pop Twee pop is a subgenre of indie pop that originates from the 1986 ''NME'' compilation '' C86''. Twee pop gets its name from the aesthetic of twee, which is known for its simplicity and childlike innocence. Some of its defining features are boy-gi ...

band

the Brunettes The Brunettes were an indie pop group from New Zealand formed in 1998 and lasting until 2009. The group consisted of core members Jonathan Bree and Heather Mansfield, with additional contributions from part-time members such as Ryan McPhun and ...

and cult Auckland band Teenwolf. Chelsea has released four albums of original material and one covers album. Nikkel is associated with the

Lil' Chief Records Lil' Chief Records is a New Zealand–based indie pop record label formed in 2002 in music, 2002. Operating from the Auckland suburb of Mt. Eden, it was founded on releases by The Tokey Tones and The Brunettes. The label's roster now includes a ...

collective and is a part-time member of Disciples of Macca, a

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

covers band featuring members of the Brunettes,

Ruby Suns The Ruby Suns are an indie pop group from New Zealand. They formed in 2004 when Californian Ryan McPhun moved to Auckland and started playing in several bands such as the Brunettes, the Tokey Tones, and the Reduction Agents. Biography The R ...

, Bressa Creeting Cake and

Lawrence Arabia Lawrence Arabia is the musical guise of New Zealand artist and composer James Milne. In 2006, Lawrence Arabia released his self-titled debut album and the debut album from his band The Reduction Agents, '' The Dance Reduction Agents''. Both ...

and more recently performs as bass player in three-piece rock'n'roll band
Hang Loose

Music career

Chelsea’s baroque musical style has been attributed to her classical training, and the ''

New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation in New Zealand ...

'' has praised her "angelic vocals and acerbic wit". Her best known song, " The Cigarette Duet" received significant press exposure after its video went viral on

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 ...

in early 2012, recently reaching over 100 million views. This led to her being featured on ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'''s "New Band of the Day". Chelsea is also known for her distinctive and influential visual style which emerged with her creation of homemade low budget music videos beginning in 2011. Chelsea cites Andy Warhol’s
Screen Tests
' ''and'' director

Robert Altman Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer, producer. He is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, known for directing subversive and sat ...

as influencing her visual style and more recently has begun making visual content for other artists directing and editing music videos fo
In The Sunshine
an
Politics
by Jonathan Bree. The self-directed music video for �
I Love My Boyfriend
�� is an example of her signature visual style which often incorporates mixed multimedia and

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

with an editing style that favours long voyeuristic shots as depicted in early music videos for �
Yulia
��
Ice Reign
�� and most famously �
The Cigarette Duet
��. For the music videos from her second album '' The Great Cybernetic Depression'', Chelsea began working exclusively with New Zealand based video artist Simon Ward who directed the web serie
Aroha Bridge
with Jessica Hansell and collaborates with New York-based New Zealand contemporary artist Jess Johnson. Simon Ward directed the music videos for �
Is It All Ok
’, �
We’re So Lost’
�
We Are Strangers
��
We Were Meant 2 B
and �
No Church on Sunday
��. Simon Ward also directed the music videos for �
Frack
�� and �
Caution Repetitive
�� from her first album ‘''Lil’ Golden Book''’. Chelsea's song
When The World Turns Grey
from ''The Great Cybernetic Depression'' was remixed in a collaboration with the German electronic music producer,

Robin Schulz Robin Alexander Schulz (; born 28 April 1987) is a German musician, DJ, and record producer. On 4 February 2014, he released the first single from his debut album, a remix of "Waves (Mr. Probz song), Waves" by Dutch hip hop artist Mr. Probz. T ...

. The remix is on the album ''Sugar'' released by Schulz in September 2015. In August 2016, Chelsea made a cover of a song called "Cold Glass Tube" by the Reduction Agents, which is available on the album ''Waiting for Your Love: A Tribute to the Reduction Agents''. This was followed up by an album of covers called ''Aftertouch'' which features her signature dreamy electronic productions of songs by a variety of artists including Lucinda Williams, Elvis Presley, Interpol and Nirvana. In May 2018, Princess Chelsea released the album ''The Loneliest Girl'' which features the runaway hit �
I Love My Boyfriend
��. In 2019 Chelsea moved to

Waiheke Island Waiheke Island is the second-largest island (after Great Barrier Island) in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand. Its ferry terminal in Matiatia Bay at the western end is from the central-city terminal in Auckland. It is the most populated island ...

in New Zealand and took a self-imposed hiatus from music after experiencing a mental health collapse. In 2022 Princess Chelsea collaborated with French electronic artist Mattyeux from the project Videoclub on the duet �
Sometimes’
released on Warner Chappell France. In March 2023 Princess Chelsea collaborated with Jonathan Bree and

Nile Rodgers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. The co-founder of Chic, he has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 750 million albums and 1 ...

on the duet ‘Miss You'. In April 2023, Princess Chelsea won the

Taite Music Prize The Taite Music Prize is an annual New Zealand music award event. A prize of the same name (sometimes called the Taite Music Main) is one of five to be awarded. It recognises the best New Zealand album from the previous year. The prize is named ...

for her fifth album ''Everything is Going to be Alright'' which chronicles her recovery from a two year long mental health crisis . On March 6th 2024, Teenwolf reunited for a one-off gig supporting

Shonen Knife Shonen Knife is a Japanese pop-punk band formed in Osaka in 1981. Influenced by 1960s girl groups, pop bands, the Beach Boys, and early punk rock bands such as the Ramones, the band crafts stripped-down songs with simple yet unconventional ...

. In 2025, Chelsea performed the song "You and Me" with Jonathan Bree for the soundtrack to the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

film '' Plankton: The Movie''.

Discography

Albums

* '' Lil' Golden Book'' (2011) * '' The Great Cybernetic Depression'' (2015) * ''Aftertouch'' (2016) * ''The Loneliest Girl'' (2018) * ''Everything Is Going to Be Alright '' (2022)

EPs

* ''The Cigarette Duet (European Tour Edition)'' (2012)

Singles

Music videos

References

External links

* *
Radio Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chelsea, Princess 1985 births Musical groups established in 2009 New Zealand women singer-songwriters New Zealand singer-songwriters 21st-century New Zealand women singers New Zealand women in electronic music Living people Musicians from Auckland Indie pop musicians Taite Music Prize winners