Bikôkô: “When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with R’n’B and neo soul artists like Erykah Badu, Outkast and D’Angelo – all the good stuff!”

Having lived there for a while in his campervan, it was Pete Doherty who a few years back told us that, “Barcelona is such a cool city. The music scene’s like London ten years ago; there’s fantastic stuff happening everywhere.”

Hot Press got proof of that in 2022 at the Mallorca Live Festival when we saw Rigoberta Bandini, a Barca band who variously managed to sound like Pet Shop Boys, Peaches, Celine Dion, Pussy Riot and the Bee Gees.

Returning to Mallorca Live this year, our Spanish colleagues have pointed us in the direction of Bikôkô, another wanton genre-bender who’s back living in Barcelona after four fruitful years in London.
Musically, though, it’s continents rather than cities that singer and model Neï Lydia Kibol Bikôkô Pineda has straddled.

“My mum’s from Barcelona where I was born and raised and my dad’s from Cameroon, so I’ve family there and went to Africa a lot as a kid,” she explains shortly after coming off stage. “When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with R’n’B and neo soul artists like Erykah Badu, Outkast and D’Angelo – all the good stuff! – that my older brother introduced me to. I was like, ‘Whatever that is, I want to do it!’ So, when I was eighteen I decided to go to New York for a few months where I learned how to produce and developed my first project.”

Ending up in an area of Brooklyn called Sunset Park, Bikôkô took a while to adjust to her new surroundings.

“I thought I knew everything about the U.S. from all the American music and movies I consumed growing up but, no, it was a real culture shock,” she nods. “But in a good way! I went to loads of gigs while I was there – people like Daniel Caesar, Sabrina Claudio and Corey Henry who’s an amazing organ player – and just let the city surprise me, which it did on a daily basis.

“Coming back to Barcelona, the pandemic happened and everything closed down, which actually gave me the time and space to finish my Aura Aura record.”

Available from bikoko.bandcamp.com, it takes those choice neo soul influences of hers and morphs them into something thrillingly unique.

“I’m incredibly inspired by the different types of traditional music in Africa and also the gospel that comes from the Christian countries there,” she enthuses. “There’s something so pure about that, which has always touched me. I’d done djembe lessons for years, so percussively that’s part of it. Thanks to a record I found in my dad’s collection, I also fell in love with Tanzanian tribal chants. When you hear the kids signing in church, my god, it’s so beautiful. That’s a big influence on my melodies, as are the singers I discovered in Mali.”

Bikôkô

Bikôkô shares her name – it means ‘sunset’ in the Basaa language of Cameroon – with her cool dude bass-playing father who volunteered his services when his daughter had to put together a live band at short notice. Who misbehaves the most on tour?

“Him!” she laughs. “I’d already found a bass-player but she got sick and pulled out at the last minute. I was like, ‘Where am I going to get a replacement at such short notice?’ So I did what any girl does when she’s in trouble, which is call my dad!”

Bikôkô’s mother, meanwhile, was a successful Spanish model who introduced her daughter to the profession when she was just thirteen.

“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been super-inspired by fashion,” she recalls. “I’m a massive fan of Jean Paul Gaultier who collaborated with the amazing Irish designer Simone Rocha on his 2024 Spring/Summer collection. People say, ‘That’s a very young age to have started modelling’ but I had my mum to guide me. I needed money to get to America and that was a great way of earning it.

“For years now I’ve been working with my stylist and creative director, John. We go hand-in-hand and have just shot a campaign here in Spain for Mango.”

One of Bikôkô’s most-listened to Spotify songs, ‘Nothing Ever’, reflects on the body image dissatisfaction she’s experienced.

“It came out on my second EP, No News Is Good News, as I was feeling pressure from around me to be a certain thing and look a certain way,” she concludes. “‘Nothing Ever’ is me saying that just because I’ve been modelling for years and everything seems perfect on social media, it doesn’t mean that I don’t have insecurities when I look in the mirror or compare myself to other people in a way that’s unhealthy. It’s days like today, being on stage with my dad and the rest of band, where I feel truly blessed.”