Team’s favourite artists: Nèri!

Before we start, I need to give a little disclaimer about this list. I love a lot of artists and I found it very hard to choose and rank them for this article! So the artists in this list may switch places depending on my mood and recent events like one of their concerts. Now let’s go to the first artist on my list!

5 Seconds of Summer

5 Seconds of Summer will always hold a special place in my heart, and I would definitely put them at the top of this list time and time again. At the end of primary school, right before I was about to go to high school as a little 12 year old in 2014, I heard about this band through social media. Of course, like many other people at the time, I fell completely in love with them. I remember begging my parents to let me see them open for One Direction, who I was also a huge fan of, but the answer was no. I spent all summer singing their songs. At the end of that summer my parents bought me tickets to see them in Amsterdam in 2015, which was my first concert ever! Since then, I’ve seen them four more times, the most recent one being last October.

During these almost 10 years of being a fan of this band, I really feel like they have grown with me, which is part of the reason I still love them so much. As I became an adult, their music became more mature too, so I really feel like all of their albums correspond to a certain time in my life. Something I also really like is that I share my love for them with many of my close friends, and for several of my friends I was the one that introduced 5 Seconds of Summer to them. This makes their music extra special to me! Some of my favourite songs of theirs are ‘Vapor’, ‘Outer Space/Carry On’, ‘Bloodhound’, and ‘Long Way Home’.

Joker Out

This band was a very recent addition to my favourite artists. I already liked them a lot when they were on Eurovision, but I didn’t listen to them a lot until very recently. I went to their concert in Amsterdam on the 6th of December with a friend, quite randomly, just for fun. But both my friend and I ended up loving the live show so much that we now can’t stop listening to them! So I’ve been an “actual” fan of them for less than a month. I usually don’t listen to music in languages I can’t understand, so Joker Out is a unique artist in my list. I love their rock vibe and the amazing instrumentals in their songs, as well as their silliness on stage. My favourite song of theirs is currently ‘Plastika’, but I also really like ‘Dopamin’ and ‘Demoni’. I’m excited to see them again in Utrecht in March 2024!

Full Circle

If you look at the articles I’ve written for Melomaniacs so far, this artist may be a bit of an obvious choice. I discovered Full Circle at the end of 2022 through their Instagram reels, in which they dance to songs by other boy bands like One Direction, who you will find later on this list. I am also a dancer myself, so I really loved watching their videos. It wasn’t until the start of 2023 that I discovered they were actually a band themselves as well, and I quickly became a fan of theirs. This year was really a rollercoaster for me personally, and Full Circle and all of their content and fan interactions really managed to make me smile throughout it all.

I really love the vibes of their songs and all the choreography they make for those songs. My favourite songs of theirs are ‘Like You’, ‘Insane’, and ‘Make You Believe’. I’m really happy I got to interview them recently and I am looking forward to everything they will do in 2024. I’m still really hoping they will come to the Netherlands next year because I would really love to see them perform, so everyone please manifest with me!

One Direction

Like 5 Seconds of Summer, One Direction is a band that I discovered at a very young age. I distinctly remember the first few times they were played on Dutch radio; I was probably only 10 years old, and I told my mom I liked their songs whenever they were being played. For my next birthday I was given their album, Take Me Home. I also remember that I would listen to their music every morning before going to school, and every day when I got home from school as well. I really grew up with their music, they formed my early teenage years, and I still haven’t stopped listening to their music! Whenever I listen to their music now, I just feel a lot of nostalgia and happiness about those “simpler times” and all the friends I met because of them. The songs I currently like to listen to most are ‘Little White Lies’, ‘Through the Dark’, ‘Little Things’, and ‘Loved You First’.

I am still very sad about the fact that I didn’t get to see them live in 2014 in Amsterdam, when 5 Seconds of Summer opened for them, because that was the last time they ever came to the Netherlands, so I never got to see them live. But I still hold out some hope that they will come back from their hiatus eventually! There’s just something extra special about those artists that you have loved since your childhood, right?

George Ezra

Last but not least on my list is George Ezra! While I didn’t become a fan of his until the release of ‘Shotgun’ in 2018, I remember that his song ‘Budapest’ was a huge hit when I was 12 years old. One day, while listening to the radio with my parents, I heard that they were giving away tickets for his show in Rotterdam in May 2019: all you had to do is call. I literally told my parents “I’ll just try, why not?”, so I called, and I won the tickets! Since then, I have listened to his songs and albums quite regularly, and I saw him again in March of this year, where I stood front row to his show, just like in 2019 when I first saw him live.

What I really love about George Ezra is that whenever you see him perform live, you can really see how much he loves performing on his face. He just looks so happy to be singing in front of so many people, and that happiness is infectious. My favourite songs of his are ‘Shotgun’ (obviously), ‘Manila’, ‘Sweetest Human Being Alive’, and ‘Hold My Girl’.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my favourite artists! If you don’t know one of the artists on my list, I added some of my favourite songs for every artist, so make sure to give them a listen!

Written by: Nèri Cliteur

Edited by: Lee Klaver