Nenna Yvonne

Nenna Yvonne (born Nnenna Yvonne Okpala) is a Nigerian-born American Pop singer-songwriter.

Biography
Nnenna Yvonne Okpala born in Nigeria the 30th March 1989. At young age she moved with her family to New York, where they settled in Queens, here Nenna began her career as a teenager, performing before the age of 16 on such prestigious stages as Alice Tully Hall, Lincon Center and Carnegie Hall while studying music at the LaGuardia High School For the Performing Arts. At the age of 21 after the release of her debut EP Model Citizen she moved to Los Angeles where she established her studio and found her own label and movement, but also she had the chance to work with famous producer like Space Cowboy and J.R. Rotem, and signed TV placements, in fact some of her songs were played in TV shows of channel as NBC, CMT, Spike TV, Lifetime, Fox, Lifetime, MTV, MLB, Disney Channel and The Golf Channel. Nenna was the first African-born artist to be inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall Of Fame, winning this prestigious honor for song from her first EP. After that, Nenna became an internet star for her video on You Tube who have passed a million views, but also for the numerous followers on social like Twitter and Instagram and for the numerous like on her page on Facebook. Nenna Yvonne worked also as model for important brands and fashion houses, but also she apparead on cover of Billboard, and many web page as MTV and influential music blogs.

Early Years: LaGuardia High School of Music & Art
She was raised in New York where she took her first steps into the world of music. At 17, Yvonne began experimenting with diary entries that would eventually inspire her original lyrics. While purchasing her own studio equipment at New York’s Sam Ash Music Store, she met producer/eventual mentor Daniel “Dtox” Wisniewski.

Nenna has written music that has been placed nationally on NBC- The Mentalist and MTV as well as VH1. She won the 2011 Songwriter of the Year award and currently has songs such as We Never Die, Model Citizen and Go Around on Spike TV and Disney World through APM Music. At age 14, she began taking the four-hour daily commute from Long Island to the prestigious Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and Performing Arts in Manhattan.

“I was pushing for this since I was a little girl,” Yvonne remembers. “I’m stubborn in a sense, and I’m not the kind of person that’s going to look back and regret that I didn’t go after my goals.”

While enrolled at La Guardia, Yvonne studied classical arias, chamber music, sight-singing, gospel and jazz. She also earned the honor of performing with classmates in a Carnegie Hall recital. “There’s people that work their whole life to get that opportunity—violinists, cellists, opera singers,” she says. “At age 16, to sing there with a bunch of your friends… it’s almost mind-blowing.”

2010: Model Citizen EP
Between 2009 and 2010 collaborating with Dtox, Nenna Yvonne self-released the Model Citizen EP in 2010. In the summer of 2010, Yvonne submitted “Some Girls” to the MySpace Rock the Space Toyota competition sponsored by Fender and MySpace Records—it was selected as a Top 10 finalist out of 28,000 submissions. That same year, she and Dtox composed the Hot 97 “Intrigue” Summer Jam party song for 2010].She has performed at Hollywood venues such as Key Club with singer Miguel and Whisky a Go Go. Yvonne is the recipient of the 2011 Abe Olman Scholarship for Excellence in Songwriting, chosen by SESAC. She has also been nominated and won "Best U.S. -Based Female Artist of the Year" for the 2011 NEAs (Nigeria Entertainment Awards). For one of the songs of Model Citizen EP Nenna has a duet with Havoc of Mobb Deep.

2011-2012
In 2011 Nenna signed with the Interscope Records and publish the single Go Around which was used from NBC for an episode of the telefim The Mentalist. In 2012 Nenna Yvonne has released her debut single ‘Kuru Kuru 360’ in Tokyo,Japan through Hyper Disk/EMI who reached the top 10 in Itunes Japan, and also released her follow up single “Gonna Change” in Holland, Netherlands through Avatar records. Both releases were featured on front page itunes alongside pop acts such as Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Beiber.

Yvonne is the recipient of the 2011 Abe Olman Scholarship for Excellence in Songwriting, chosen by SESAC. She has also been nominated "Best U.S. -Based Female Artist of the Year" for the 2011 NEAs (Nigeria Entertainment Awards).

Blue Magic Is Nenna Yvonne
After releasing the EP Model Citizen, Nenna Yvonne and her manager and producer Dtox, decided to move to Los Angeles where in 2012, founded her own label Blue Magic Production LLC which receives a distribution deal with Universal Music. Nenna created the Blue Magic Movement, where Nenna gives life to her alter ego, Blue Magic, which is a more colorful version of Nenna Yvonne, that according to what Nenna said on TMZ, Blue Magic rappresent a woman who make the right choices for her life, a woman who is independent and free.

2013: The Evolution of Blue Magic
After publishing, 5 Mixtape and an EP, Nenna released on 10 September 2013 her debut album under her own label Blue Magic Production LLC distributed by Universal Music. In the past, in addition to having worked with her producer and manager Dtox, Nenna Yvonne has also worked with producers such as Space Cowboy, J.R. Rotem, and written songs for many artists. The album contain 14 tracks all written by Nenna Yvonne, for this album Nenna worked with her main producer, and two new producer that she introduced on her label.

EPs

 * 2010: Model Citizen - EP

Singles

 * 2009: Paranoia (promotional single)
 * 2010: Some Girls
 * 2010: Don't Know Me
 * 2011: Go Around (Interscope Digital Distribution)
 * 2011: We Never Dies
 * 2012: We Came To Rock
 * 2012: Kuru Kuru 360 (Hyper Disk/EMI)
 * 2012: Gonna Change (Edwin Garcia feat. Nenna Yvonne)
 * 2013: You And I
 * 2013: Major
 * 2013: Let Go Of Love
 * 2013: Night In Paris (promotional single)

Mixtapes

 * 2012: Blue Magic Mixtape vol 1
 * 2012: Blue Magic Mixtape vol 2
 * 2012: Blue Magic Mixtape vol 3
 * 2012: Blue Magic Mixtape vol 4
 * 2012: Blue Magic Mixtape vol 5