| Princess Chelsea | |
| Birth Name: | Chelsea Lee Nikkel[1] |
| Birth Date: | 4 September 1985 |
| Birth Place: | Auckland, New Zealand |
| Genre: | Indie pop, synth-pop, baroque pop |
| Years Active: | 2009–present |
| Label: | Lil' Chief Records |
| Associated Acts: | The Brunettes |
Chelsea Lee Nikkel, better known by her stage name Princess Chelsea, is a producer, musician and visual artist from Auckland, New Zealand. She was a member of twee pop band the Brunettes and cult Auckland band Teenwolf. Chelsea has released four albums of original material and one covers album.[2] Nikkel is associated with the Lil' Chief Records collective and is a part-time member of Disciples of Macca, a Paul McCartney covers band featuring members of the Brunettes, Ruby Suns, Bressa Creeting Cake and Lawrence Arabia and more recently performs as bass player in three-piece rock'n'roll band, Hang Loose.[3]
Chelsea’s baroque musical style has been attributed to her classical training, and the New Zealand Herald has praised her "angelic vocals and acerbic wit".[4] Her best known song, "The Cigarette Duet" received significant press exposure after its video[5] went viral on YouTube in early 2012, recently reaching over 100 million views. This led to her being featured on The Guardian's "New Band of the Day".[6] Chelsea is also known for her distinctive and influential visual style which emerged with her creation of homemade low budget music videos beginning in 2011. Chelsea cites Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests and director Robert Altman as influencing her visual style and more recently has begun making visual content for other artists directing and editing music videos for In The Sunshine and Politics by Jonathan Bree. The self-directed music video for ‘I Love My Boyfriend’ is an example of her signature visual style which often incorporates mixed multimedia and VHS with an editing style that favours long voyeuristic shots as depicted in early music videos for ‘Yulia’ ‘Ice Reign’ and most famously ‘The Cigarette Duet’.
For the music videos from her second album The Great Cybernetic Depression, Chelsea began working exclusively with New Zealand based video artist Simon Ward who directed the web series Aroha Bridge with Jessica Hansell and collaborates with New York-based New Zealand contemporary artist Jess Johnson.[7] [8] Simon Ward directed the music videos for ‘Is It All Ok?’, ‘We’re So Lost’, ‘We Are Strangers’,'We Were Meant 2 B' and ‘No Church on Sunday’. Simon Ward also directed the music videos for ‘Frack’ and ‘Caution Repetitive’ from her first album ‘Lil’ Golden Book’. Chelsea's song "When The World Turns Grey" from The Great Cybernetic Depression was remixed in a collaboration with the German electronic music producer, Robin Schulz. The remix is on the album Sugar released by Schulz in September 2015.
In August 2016, Chelsea made a cover of a song called "Cold Glass Tube" by the Reduction Agents, which is available on the album Waiting for Your Love: A Tribute to the Reduction Agents. This was followed up by an album of covers called Aftertouch which features her signature dreamy electronic productions of songs by a variety of artists including Lucinda Williams, Elvis Presley, Interpol and Nirvana.[9]
In May 2018, Princess Chelsea released the album The Loneliest Girl which features the runaway hit ‘I Love My Boyfriend’.[10]
In 2019 Chelsea moved to Waiheke Island in New Zealand and took a self-imposed hiatus from music after experiencing a mental health collapse.[11]
In 2022 Princess Chelsea collaborated with French electronic artist Mattyeux from the project Videoclub on the duet ‘Sometimes’ released on Warner Chappell France.
In March 2023 Princess Chelsea collaborated with Jonathan Bree and Nile Rodgers on the duet ‘Miss You'.[12]
In April 2023, Princess Chelsea won the Taite Music Prize for her fifth album Everything is Going to be Alright which chronicles her recovery from a two year long mental health crisis .[13]
On March 6th 2024, Teenwolf reunited for a one-off gig supporting Shonen Knife on Waiheke Island.[14] [15]
| Title[17] | Year | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Your Woman"[18] | 2009 | Non-album single | |
| "Monkey Eats Bananas"[19] | 2009 | Lil' Golden Book | |
| "And I Love Her"[20] | 2010 | Non-album single | |
| "Too Fast to Live"[21] | 2011 | Lil' Golden Book | |
| "The Cigarette Duet"[22] | 2011 | Lil' Golden Book | |
| "Ice Reign"[23] | 2011 | Lil' Golden Book | |
| "Overseas"[24] | 2012 | Lil' Golden Book | |
| "We're So Lost"[25] | 2013 | The Great Cybernetic Depression | |
| "No Church on Sunday"[26] | 2014 | No Church on Sunday | |
| "Kiss My Lips"[27] | 2020 | Collaboration with Jonathan Bree on After The Curtains Close |
| width=3% | Year | Music video | Artist(s) | Album | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | "Monkey Eats Bananas" | Princess Chelsea | Lil' Golden Book | 9 March | Chelsea dancing and performing in front of a green screen with the stuffed monkey used on the single cover. In the background, random footage is played, such as a clip of Bill O'Reilly's television meltdown, the movie poster to License to Drive, and gold fish underwater. | |
| "Machines of Loving Grace" | 18 March | The music video is entirely clips from the movie The NeverEnding Story | ||||
| "Red Rollerskates" | The Brunettes | - | 11 November | Makes a cameo as a jogger in the park | ||
| 2010 | "And I Love Her" | Princess Chelsea | Aftertouch | 17 April | ||
| 2011 | "Ice Reign" | Lil' Golden Book | 4 April | The video is entirely Chelsea in front of a computer screen, occasionally sipping on a Diet Coke, with her stuffed monkey behind her. | ||
| "The Cigarette Duet" | Princess Chelsea & Jonathan Bree | 7 June | The video is Chelsea and Bree in a hot tub, singing with bored expressions on their faces. The video is her most popular, reaching over 100 million views on YouTube. | |||
| "Too Fast to Live" | Princess Chelsea | 10 October | Scenes of a house party that appear to be filmed by a tape recorder. Chelsea does not appear in the video until the last scene, when she is awoken by the director's fingers. She ends the video by flipping the camera off. | |||
| 2012 | "Yulia" | 18 February | Chelsea and her cat, Winston, in front of a yellow background. | |||
| "Overseas" | Princess Chelsea (feat. James Milne) | 13 September | Chelsea in Central Square. | |||
| "Frack" | Princess Chelsea | 12 December | CGI animation of Chelsea in the future getting ready for her day. Her cat Winston makes a cameo in the video. | |||
| 2013 | "Caution Repetitive" | 5 April | Chelsea trying on costumes. The video is last of the Lil' Golden Book series. | |||
| "We're So Lost" | The Great Cybernetic Depression | 29 October | CGI animation of Chelsea parodying The Sims. | |||
| "The Primrose Path" | Jonathan Bree | - | 18 December | A music video of Jonathan Bree's full album, The Primrose Path, featuring him in bed with Chelsea and her cat, Winston. The video is referred to as an "anti music video." | ||
| 2014 | "No Church on Sunday" | Princess Chelsea | The Great Cybernetic Depression | 2 December | Chelsea standing in a CGI world in gothic outfits. | |
| 2015 | "Too Many People" | 28 May | Chelsea singing in a karaoke style in a black room with fog. Her cat Winston makes a cameo in the video. | |||
| "We Were Meant 2 B" | 19 August | Directed by Simon Ward. | ||||
| "We Are Strangers" | Princess Chelsea & Jonathan Bree | 30 October | Directed by Simon Ward. | |||
| 2016 | "Is It All OK?" | Princess Chelsea | 13 May | A CGI music video featuring robotic acting avatars of Chelsea and Joe Astle. | ||
| "Morning Sun" | Aftertouch | 26 September | A cover of Marianne Faithfull's 1965 song. | |||
| "Aftertouch" | 15 November | |||||
| 2018 | "I Love My Boyfriend" | The Loneliest Girl | 21 June | Directed by Chelsea Nikkel | ||
| "Wasting Time" | 3 August | Video shot directed and edited by Anastasia Doniants on Super 8 film. | ||||
| "Growing Older" | 3 October | Video edited by Chelsea Nikkel from handycam footage 1990–2002. | ||||
| 2020 | "Kiss My Lips" | Jonathan Bree | - | 13 February | Chelsea performing on a 1960s style stage with a backing band wearing masks. | |
| "All I Need to Do" | Princess Chelsea | The Loneliest Girl | 21 May | Edited by Chelsea Nikkel. | ||
| "I Miss My Man" | 23 November | |||||
| 2022 | "Everything Is Going to Be Alright" | Princess Chelsea | Everything Is Going to Be Alright | 25 February | ||
| "Sometimes" | Princess Chelsea, Mattyeux | - | 24 June | Princess Chelsea's first collaboration song with Mattyeux | ||
| "The Forest" | Princess Chelsea | Everything Is Going to Be Alright | 2 August | |||
| "Forever Is a Charm" | 8 September |