Nikka Costa

Domenica "Nikka" Costa (born 4 June 1972, Tokyo, Japan) is an Australian-American singer-songwriter. Her music has elements of pop, soul, funk, blues, progressive rock, new wave, synth-pop and electropop. She began her singing career as a child singer in the early 1980s. She is also a movie actress and professional mermaid.
Biography.
Costa's career as a recording artist with her own name began in 1981. That year, she recorded the song "Out Here on My Own". Her self-titled album was released outside the United States in the same year. Costa then toured the world. Costa's second album, "Fairy Tales", was released in 1983. Her father, Don Costa, was shot dead by a mentally ill named Mark David Chapman in January that year.
Between 1983 and 1990, Costa sang covers of The Angels' 1963 song "My Boyfriend's Back" and Disney's 1989 song "Part of Your World" (the latter, taken from "The Little Mermaid").
Costa moved away from childhood pop to mature soul in the 1990s. She signed to the Mushroom record label in Australia. In 1996, she released the studio album "Butterfly Rocket" in Australia. The album led to Costa being nominated for an ARIA Music Awards Breakthrough Artist in 1996 and the Best Female Artist in 1997.
In 2000, Costa's song "Like a Feather" was shown in a Tommy Hilfiger television advertising campaign. The exposure and the song's music video helped launch her United States music career. In 2001, her album "Everybody Got Their Something" was released. It hit #120 on the U.S. "Billboard" 200.
Costa later signed to Stax. She released her studio album "Pebble to a Pearl" on 14 October 2008.
Other passions.
In addition of music, her passions are acting, swimming (mostly mermaiding), artistic gymnastics, classical ballet, Disney cartoons, and dolls.
Private life.
She is married with Australian producer-songwriter Justin Stanley, with whom she has a daughter Sugar McQueen (2006), and a son, Suede (2013).