Nicki Nicole is letting an old lover know exactly what he missed out on. The Argentine singer just released “Ojos Verdes,” a new cumbia track that celebrates self-love and moving on from a relationship.
The title references the singer’s green eyes. On the song, Nicki sings to an ex and lets him know that he’ll never find anyone like her. “I know you’re with someone else but thinking of me/And you give her the kisses I once gave you/Who are you going to deceive, who are you going to lie to/Saying you don’t miss me,” she sings in Spanish.
Nicki tells Rolling Stone that she wrote the song at the end of January. “The truth is, I realized I always make songs talking about what I feel for someone else, but never talking about me. But I thought this was a good concept. It goes beyond the actual eyes and the physical. It’s saying, ‘Good luck finding in someone else what only I have.’ It’s like ‘My essence is something you won’t find in another person.’ And I think people are going with identify that.”
The artist also says she’d been wanting to try cumbia, a style she’s loved since she was a child, but she admits she was nervous about testing out the sound on her own. Nicki sang a version of the genre on “Otra Noche” with Mexican outfit Los Ángeles Azules, but here, she wanted to do it solo.
“The fact that it’s cumbia I did very specifically. I felt this era after Alma had to represent my real roots, which are what I’ve been listening to as a kid,” she says. “I come from Rosario [Argentina] and my brothers showed me everything they listened to, and a lot of that was all kinds of nostalgic cumbia. That’s what I wanted to nod toward with this song.”
She adds, “I want it to be one of those cumbias that when the party is winding down, you put this on, and it turns things back on.”
The video, directed by Facundo Ballve, was shot on Super 8 film and captures the nostalgic vibe Nicki says she was after. Several scenes focus on her eyes and show her playing with a red rose. All of it seems to nod at an old romance (Nicki recently broke up with the Mexican artist Peso Pluma.) However, she says she wants people to walk away with a sense of empowerment and self-pride. “What I wanted to do with this song is for people to celebrate what makes them unique,” she explains.
Nicki recently announced her first U.S. tour, which includes stops in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. She’s also been playing the festival circuit, making appearances at Coachella, Vibra Urbana, Calibash, and This Aint No Picnic.
