Nikola

Nikola is a French singer and songwriter from Besançon who mixes French chanson with rap, urban beats and touches of Balkan music. His family's roots are in Montenegro through his grandparents, and he holds both French and Montenegrin passports, which is why he is listed among Montenegro's artists here. He grew up in the Montrapon district of Besançon, where his grandfather had settled after coming to France, working at the Peugeot factories in nearby Sochaux.

Music started at home. His father played bass as an amateur, and Nikola took up the drums to play along with him, as a way of spending time together. He wrote his first poems in school notebooks, and at around 13 he began making music on his own with software on a computer. At his grandparents' home he heard the traditional music of their country. After his baccalauréat he left Besançon for Paris.

He released two EPs, in 2021 and 2023, both about his early years. In the summer of 2023 he travelled through the Balkans in a van with two French friends, setting off from Paris by way of Besançon and Sochaux, and filmed the trip as a documentary, "MNE - Le film". His debut album, MNE, followed on 19 January 2024: fifteen songs named after the three-letter code for Montenegro. It includes "Besac", a nickname for his home town, "Podgorica", a song about his grandfather, the interlude "Baba i Deda" with his grandfather's voice, "Au bord de la mer", "Elle meurt la mort" and "Papier cigarette". MNE+ later brought acoustic versions of some of the songs.

Jacques Brel first drew him to chanson, and he names Piaf, Gainsbourg, Barbara, Ferré and Aznavour alongside rappers such as Booba and Diam's. Grand Corps Malade is one of his main influences, and Nikola opened for him at his Zénith concerts and at Forest National in Brussels. In 2026 he released the single "peut-être!".