135 minutes with NIKKI YANOFSKY

As soon as Nikki Yanofsky sits down at the table in Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola Jazz at Lincoln Center’s imperial spot overlooking Central Park, she takes the menu, says she’s starving, warns that she doesn’t have good table manners (“You’ll see: I can make crumbs out of apples”), announces that she’ll want dessert, and otherwise yaks away. “I know, I talk very fast,” she declares. “I call it ‘Nikkanese.’ That’s how I do my scatting.” (read more)

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16-year-old NIKKI YANOFSKY: “no nerves, just talent”

New York (CNN) — When 16-year-old Nikki Yanofsky stepped on stage to sing the Canadian national anthem at the opening ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympics, her nerves did a curious thing: They vanished. “I never get nervous and I was so nervous for that one,” she says. “But I walked out and all my nerves went away. That’s how I knew that [performing] is really what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Sure, not every burgeoning singer gets the chance to gauge whether she’s chosen the right career path by belting out a number in front of a captive worldwide audience. But this jazz-inspired Montreal, Quebec, native has never had a problem with shooting for the moon. “My dad always says you can’t be king unless you believe you can be king. So first I had to believe — I can be a singer. Now I’m trying to chase it.” (read more)

NIKKI YANOFSKY featured in The New York Times – “Young Singer Just Wants to Act Her Age”

NIKKI YANOFSKY was up early, and already on. “Mee-ee-ee-ee,” she sang one morning last month, warming up in a tiny dressing room of a Manhattan television studio. A makeup artist leaned in to apply some last-minute touches, and she paused, eyeing her reflection. “You know how everyone says, ‘I’m a morning person,’ or ‘I’m a night person’?” she chirped. “I’m just a person.” Her parents, seated on either side of her, smiled. Ms. Yanofsky, a 16-year-old jazz-pop singer from Montreal, was about to perform on WPIX’s “Morning News one of three such appearances that day. With her small frame, delicate features and bright-eyed demeanor, she seemed even younger than her years, but also like a seasoned professional. She wore a black blazer over a white T-shirt and leather pants, crediting the look to Dsquared2, the same designers who put her in a red silk-crepe cocktail dress for the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics. It was her prepossessing turn on that global stage, belting a dramatically embellished “O Canada,” that effectively served as her debutante ball. (She was also the voice behind the Vancouver Games’ theme song, “I Believe.” )

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Montreal’s Teen Vocal Prodigy NIKKI YANOFSKY’s Highly Anticipated Debut CD “NIKKI” Available April 27

“I BELIEVE” SOARS TO #1 ON THE iTunes® TOP SONGS CHART

Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company,  is pleased to announce the debut studio release of Montreal vocal sensation Nikki Yanofsky titled, Nikki on April 27th (Decca / Universal Music Canada).

“It is once in a lifetime that a talent  like Nikki Yanofsky comes singing along and her arrival is about to set the music world alight,” commented Randy Lennox, President and CEO, Universal Music Canada.  “While “I Believe” has made Nikki an instant household name and a new voice of our nation, her debut album is certain to garner her international acclaim.”

Nikki was produced by 15-time Grammy-winning producer Phil Ramone (Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Burt Bacharach, Paul Simon) and Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Jesse Harris (best known for his work on Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me and Feels Like Home).

Nikki is a collection of newly arranged standards and elegant originals Yanofsky co-wrote with Harris and Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith that reflects her love for jazz, blues, R&B, soul, and traditional pop vocal styles.  A composition written for Yanofsky by acclaimed Canadian songstress Feist (“Try, Try, Try”) will also appear on the album.

Nikki features classic selections from the American Songbook including “I Got Rhythm”, “God Bless The Child” and “Over the Rainbow” as well as original compositions that Yanofsky co-wrote including, “For Another Day”, “Never Make It On Time”, “Bienvenue Dans Ma Vie,” and the soulful, R&B-flavoured “Cool My Heels”.

Hot on the heels of her 16th birthday this week, Yanofsky is taking the world by storm with her smash hit single and CTV’s Official song for the Olympic Games, “I Believe” topping the iTunes® Top Songs Chart.  Yanofsky’s climb to the top officially marks the vocal prodigy’s first #1 hit single.  “I Believe” – CTV’s Official song for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games – was written by award winning composer, Stephan Moccio and Canadian music maverick Alan Frew.

The video for “I Believe” premiered during the 2010 Super Bowl halftime show on CTV this past weekend, bringing the song into millions of Canadian homes nationwide.  It has also been making waves and just crowned “The Big One” on MuchMusic and “Choice Cut” on MuchMoreMusic.  View the video on the CTV website here.

Yanofsky and Moccio will perform “I Believe” for the first time LIVE on CTV’s Olympic Morning direct from the International Broadcast Centre in Vancouver this Saturday (February 13).

For more information, visit www.nikkiyanofsky.com.