Early Life
Nikka Costa was born in Tokyo, Japan. Her father Don Costa was a notable producer and a musician with many connections in the music business. During her childhood Costa was surrounded by famous musicians and traveled around the world with her father.
At age 5 Costa recorded a single with Hawaiian singer Don Ho. Italian producers Danny B. Besquet and Tony Renis were working with her father on the album Don Costa Plays The Beatles when they had a brainstorm to produce an album with Nikka singing while her father played acoustic guitar. The album was well received in Europe and Costa became known as a child star. At age 9 Costa sang with Frank Sinatra in an appearance on the lawn of the White House.
Costa's career as a recording artist under her own name started in 1981, when she recorded the song "(Out Here) On My Own" (from the musical Fame). The single, recorded in Milan with the conductor Victor Bach and produced by Besquet and Renis, spent fourteen weeks at number 1 in Italy, nine weeks at number 1 in Spain, and five weeks at number 1 in France. The song also reached number 7 in Switzerland and number 32 in the Netherlands. The album Nikka Costa, produced by Besquet and Remis, was released outside the U.S. in 1981. The album reached #1 in Europe and South America and Costa toured around the world. Her second album Fairy Tales (cuentos de hadas) was released in 1983. Don Costa died of a heart attack shortly after the album was recorded. The pop album Here I Am... Yes, It's Me was released to fulfill a contractual obligation in 1989, though it still topped some charts in Europe. In 1990 she performed at the San Remo Music Festival with a rendition of All for the Love, an English version of Vattene amore by Mietta and Amedeo Minghi.
After graduating from high school, Costa decided to move away from pop and moved toward funk and soul, becoming influenced by Motown artists.
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