By Nadia Urbina, Jan. 25, 2022
With over 130,000 monthly listeners, 101 million streams on YouTube, Spotify and SoundCloud, Cal Poly Pomona alumnus Nick Lopez’s success in the music industry is transpiring internationally with buzz in China.
His single “Pink Champagne” generated huge success after it gained traction on the Chinese music streaming service NetEase and TikTok. The popularity of the song skyrocketed on Chinese TikTok in 2019 where a snippet of the song was used in the background of thousands of dance and lip-sync videos.
Lopez was made aware of his song’s popularity after someone on Instagram direct messaged him to congratulate him on the song’s success.
“I didn’t expect that. That was completely out of left field,” said Lopez. “It was doing okay on Spotify; I had no idea that that would ever happen in a foreign country and I would be able to go there too. I could have never predicted that; that’s why I thought it was a joke at first.”
According to Lopez, in early 2020 he traveled to China for the first time and performed his song live in a packed club full of fans.
Along with his single “Pink Champagne,” he has other singles that vary from pop to EDM and he isn’t afraid to explore other genres as well. Apart from singing, Lopez writes songs and has co-wrote songs for big names such as Demi Lovato and has collaborated recently with San Holo and Manila Killa.
“I dabble in a little bit of everything. I like to work with female pop artists right now; it’s kind of what I’ve been doing because I like to work with really great vocals and for some reason I’m drawn to female vocals,” said Lopez.
The San Francisco native has always had a passion for music and being able to creatively express through song.
According to Lopez, when he attended Cal Poly Pomona in 2014, he was majoring in music but later he chose to change it to business and attained his degree in 2019. “I wanted to have more information about the business side of things because I knew that I would need to know a lot of that to be successful in the music industry,” Lopez said.
He went on to explain that the same day he moved into his dorm room freshman year he had a meeting in LA to work on his music and build a name for himself.
“A lot of people weren’t sure why I was going to school because I was just really busy in music,” said Lopez. “After my first year of Cal Poly I moved to West Hollywood and lived there. For the rest of the time I would drive to school, so it was a big commitment.”
Lopez shared that he believes in Cal Poly Pomona’s learn-by-doing philosophy, and he will continue to apply the knowledge he learned there in the future.
Being a student and making a name for himself seemed intimidating for Lopez but he soon found that working with friends and like-minded people is the best way to succeed.
“I don’t think I feel intimidated anymore,” said Lopez. “There’s always a ‘Can I be doing better?’ ‘Why does this person have more successful content than me?’ Lots of my friends have been successful in the past year and have number one Billboard hits so I obviously sometimes compare myself, but I don’t think it’s self-doubt I think it’s more ‘I want to achieve what they have achieved so I need to keep on working harder.’”
Lopez urges other students interested in a career in the music industry that the best way to get in is by simply being true to who you are.
“Be yourself and make friends with people because the more friends you make in the industry the easier it will be for you,” said Lopez. “If you’re trying to do it all by yourself, that’s going to be way harder. It’s much better to go at it with a group of people that you work with and you’re all in it together.”
To learn more about Lopez’s music, visit his Instagram, TikTok or Spotify.
Featured image courtesy of Nick Lopez.