Nathan Sykes has come a long way since making his mark on the charts as one-fifth of the British boy band The Wanted. The English singer and songwriter, after the band’s hiatus in 2014, has embarked on a solo career. His debut single “Kiss Me Quick” reached number-one on the US Dance Club Songs chart. His second single “Over and Over again” too hit the numero-uno position on the US Dance Club Songs chart.
While Nathan Sykes has landed two top-five hits in the past year, the 22-year old singer finds it difficult to jam to his own tunes. Speaking to Billboard’s Pop Shop Podcast, he says “I get really shy when I hear [my songs] in a club or something like that, because everyone turns ’round and starts looking at you. Because you don’t know — do you live it up and be like, ‘Yeah, this is my song!’ Or do you go really shy and go, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s me…’ Because the people who want to like you would be like, ‘Oh, that’s really cool that he dances to his own song!’ But the people who don’t want to like you are like, ‘Look at that idiot, dancing to his own song!’ You can’t win.”
His recent remix duet of “Over and Over Again” with Ariana Grande has been trending on the dance charts since its release in Jan 2016, reaching as high as No 3 in the UK Dance charts. On his collaboration with his ex-girlfriend Ariana Grande, he says “I sat there listening to the song when it came on the radio in the U.K., and I said, ‘You know who’d sound great on this?’ — it was just a really random thought — ‘Ariana. She’d sound fantastic on this song. She was really up for it, and she went in and put down an amazing, just beautiful vocal.” The result of the collaboration between the two is for all to see.
On his solo debut album, he laughs “The album’s been finished twice — and then unfinished, and I was like, ‘No, not yet. I need to go back to L.A. to write a couple of songs.’ He promised that the album — which has a title that he isn’t sharing quite yet, will be out this fall.
Listen to Nathan Sykes’ Over and Over Again (Elephante Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Es7AdTvBP0
