“I am excited to sing the anthem of my country one day with the national team”: Nic (Nicole Zignago) and the story behind her performance at Inter Miami

For Nicole Zignago, it was important to perform the United States national anthem before the recent match between Inter Miami and Toronto FC in Major League Soccer (MLS). Being in the middle of the field, singing a cappella, and having figures like Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, and Rodrigo de Paul behind her made the moment one of the most imposing challenges she has taken on as a singer. But after experiencing it, another desire began to grow stronger. One much closer and personal: to someday sing the anthem of Peru alongside the Peruvian national team.

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“I think now I am very excited about the idea of someday singing my country’s anthem at an important moment for the national team. It would be something that would touch very sensitive chords in my heart and, without a doubt, a huge honor,” she says.

The opportunity to sing in Miami came from a WhatsApp message from Rodolfo ‘El Chamo’, a friend of hers and the stadium’s match announcer. Zignago accepted immediately.

The biggest challenge was the key. The U.S. anthem, she explains, has a complex range, with very low passages and very high ones. In the weeks leading up to it, she worked on that aspect and, before going onto the field, mentally repeated the exact note she had to start with. A semitone difference could change everything.

“I knew the anthem because I have lived several years in the United States, but even so, I took specific singing lessons for this challenge. It is a complex piece and I had to choose the key very carefully. Since the Canadian anthem was performed before, also a cappella, I mentally repeated the note I had to start with. I practiced it for weeks until it felt natural in my body,” she details.

It was also the first time she sang a cappella in a stadium. The nerves were inevitable.

“I prepared a couple of weeks before. It was a very beautiful challenge,” she recalls. Far from wanting to get rid of that tension, Zignago understands it as an essential part of what she does.

“The day I don’t get nervous, I will realize that I no longer love what I do. I hope that never happens and that day I will retire,” she says. And adds: “Singing is a very sacred, very beautiful moment. I love getting nervous because it means I care.”

Although she enjoys football, Zignago clarifies that she does not live the sport with the fervor of a fan nor follows a particular player. She did watch the last World Cup in full and enjoyed it, but it was mainly the Argentinians on her team who experienced the possibility of being close to figures like Lionel Messi with special enthusiasm.

“I like football, but I am not a fan of a specific player. My whole team is Argentine and they were very excited; they even took turns to see who would go with me to the stadium,” she says.

Returning home

Beyond the experience lived in Miami, Zignago is also going through a stage of personal and professional changes. One of them had been maturing for some time: leaving behind the full name with which she started her career and presenting herself, from now on, simply as Nic.

“Fans have always called me Nic and people close to me in my life as well. It is a name I love: short and easy to pronounce in all languages,” she explains. “More than a change, it has been like coming home,” she emphasizes.

Era “Enamorada”

That idea of coming home also runs through “Enamorada”. Her second album was born at a different moment: for years, music had been her refuge in the face of a breakup, sadness, or a wound. This time, however, she had to write from another place: everything was fine.

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“I have always turned to music as comfort, as home, as a place to make me feel understood. In ‘Enamorada’ I reached a point in my life where everything around me was fine and creating from that place of tranquility was a challenge,” she confesses.

The album title might suggest a love story, but Nic prefers to broaden the idea. When asked if she is in love, her answer does not point to a partner, but to the moment she is going through and everything she has built around it.

“I am very in love with the view I have in front of me in my life right now, with the decisions I have made, the place they have taken me to, the people around me, my friends, my family, my team, my career,” she points out.

Even the heartbreak songs were born from a different place: less from victimization and more from sarcasm, playfulness, or the distance that allows looking back without getting stuck there. That is why all the songs on the album appear in parentheses.

Next challenge

The artist, who has accumulated four Latin Grammy nominations, assures that the recognition she is most interested in now is not necessarily an award. She wants more people to find her songs and for the spaces where she sings to keep growing.

Among her dreams is to someday perform in a stadium in Peru and reach the National Auditorium in Mexico City. But she does not seem to be in a hurry. “I think the songs will take me where I have to be and get to where I have to arrive. That happens by itself,” she reflects.

Before that, however, there are closer stages. Her “Enamorada” tour includes performances in Peru, Mexico, and Argentina, with a date on October 15 at the Barranco Convention Center, another on October 17 in Arequipa, her second performance at the Lunario of the National Auditorium of Mexico, and her debut in Buenos Aires.

New facet

She is also exploring another territory alongside Mauricio Mesones in the renewed Jammin Movistar. Hosting was not in her plans, but she accepted because the program speaks the same language as her: music.

“The program is amazing. I feel very safe next to Mauricio. He really couldn’t have been a better partner. I had never hosted before, so I am still learning and, if something doesn’t come out perfect, I hope they forgive me,” she comments.

There she can meet artists she admires and, at the same time, give visibility to emerging musicians. Outside of that universe, she admits, she does not know if she would want to continue as a host.

Her professional dreams are joined by simpler ones. Someday she wants to have a house, start a family, and even grow her own food. Then she corrects herself when talking about seeking happiness: she is already happy, she assures. She has a chosen family, friends, and “love everywhere.”

That is why “Enamorada” does not only describe a sentimental state. It describes an artist who for years found songs when something hurt and who is now learning to find them also when life is calm. More vulnerable, but also more confident.

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