Nieve Ella has captivated fans with her heart-on-sleeve tales and soaring anthems.

Words: Jamie Muir.
Photos: Patrick Gunning.

Nieve Ella has been at home for a couple of days. For most people, that might not seem like a big deal, but following her whirlwind rush of 2023, it's become a rarity. Instead of screaming fans, it's the screaming of her brother playing FIFA next door that greets her on this weekday morning. In a few days, Nieve will be back on the road with Inhaler rounding out a support run across Europe, which winds down a year that has seen her every expectation knocked squarely out of the park. It's a dizzying time in the best way possible. "Like, is this actually real?"

"I feel like..." Nieve begins before bursting into a smile. "It's DEFINITELY not what I expected this year to be. I keep saying to people it's like a dream. I wake up, and if I'm playing a show, I will be like, 'Is this real?' I just can't even... I keep showing my mum all the gifts I've been given on tour. Look at this!" she says, holding up a forearm covered in handmade bracelets that fans have given her over the past few weeks. "She was like, 'What on earth is this?' and I'm like, 'I DON'T KNOW!'"

It's a level of connection that back in January may have seemed far away for Nieve, yet now feels like the rightful result for an artist whose heart-on-sleeve tales and soaring anthems have made their way to fans looking for someone to perfectly distil grounded raw emotion.

With her debut EP 'Young & Naive', Nieve announced her arrival into the ring. With follow-up 'Lifetime Of Wanting', she delivered the knockout blow, and there's no stopping her now. "It's just so cool," reflects Nieve. "I don't expect anything from it, really. I'm just a normal person. I get starstruck over anybody and everything, but more than anything, I get starstruck so much over the people who support me. Just the fact they listen to my music and support me when actually, I want to support them. It's been incredible for that to come with every release.

"You know when you're a kid, and you watch movies - the Justin Bieber movie was one I always used to watch - and they all say, 'I wouldn't be anything without the people that support me'. I used to be like, erm, what do you mean? Now I'm like, yeah, that is so true. I would not be anything."

Much like that Justin Bieber movie, the early days of High School Musical watchalongs and a kinship with Hannah Montana look even more critical after the year Nieve has had. Growing up in a small village where becoming a musician can be seen as pretty unrealistic, she "wanted to be Hannah Montana, not realising that you could actually be Hannah Montana."

"I remember family members asking me at a BBQ about what I wanted to do when I left college, and I'd say that I wanted to travel the world but also wanted to do music. In the back of my brain, I just wanted to go on tour!"

If Nieve wanted to tour, well, the past 12 months have delivered on that with two live stints alongside Inhaler, one with Dylan, and several festivals, including Glastonbury and Reading & Leeds. It all serves as a full-circle realisation of everything Nieve dreamed about from the beginning; she's always wanted "people to understand, connect and feel safe in the music and like they can resonate with everything I'm saying."

"It literally has been that this year. Everybody that I speak to, even if it's somebody who has just listened to my music at a show and didn't know who I was before. It's everything that I could ever dream of. Everybody is a normal person…" Nieve pauses. "Well, most people are, BUT I think of myself as that person in the crowd watching someone. That's all I want them to feel, to feel that connection. When they feel it, it's perfect."

With a connection already setting up a sold-out start to 2024, each moment Nieve takes with a laugh and a hilariously bemused take on everything. "Luckily, this has all worked out, haha," she cracks. Following a year of transformation and evolution, Nieve Ella is ready to welcome 2024 and every grandstand moment destined to come. "I've changed so much. Even this week, I was thinking that I've changed so much since before October, never mind the start of the year!" says Nieve. "I'm just constantly changing because I feel as though, y'know, as a human, we go through so much stuff every day.

"I feel as though even before music, I could see myself changing all the time. I'm at that age where I'm finding myself properly, and it's so cool to feel that. I'm so much more confident. Honestly, a chat like this would literally make me want to throw up because I'd be so scared. I would be scared of saying the wrong thing, but now I just say how I feel because I trust myself and everyone around me, too. It's such a great feeling to have that."

Gazing around her bedroom, the journey to now may still be sinking in ("I've still got some more dates in Europe, so NOT YET!" she cracks), but the future is bursting with possibility. With 'Lifetime Of Wanting' signalling an artist stepping into her own voice, finding the confidence to go into what's next is currently the focus. "I just want to be more confident. I just want to be able to be in rooms with people and feel like I belong there because I've spent a lot of time feeling that imposter syndrome. Thinking that nobody really knows who I am and that I'm just someone from a small place that's not London at all, but I just want to feel confident. I want to feel like I belong in the places that I am.

"I want to write music that I play live and have so much fun. People can come to a show, have fun, forget about everything else and feel so content in that moment. To dance and sing, that's all I want."

Nieve Ella doesn't just belong in these places now; she owns the whole damn building. If it's going to happen, keep happening and stay happening, then the world better be ready. Nieve Ella is ready to take what's hers in 2024.