Nico Santos

Nico Santos, born Nico Wellenbrink on January 7, 1993 in Bremen, is a German singer-songwriter. He is the son of Egon Wellenbrink. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to the Spanish island of Majorca, where he attended primary school and was educated in Spanish and Catalan in addition to his native German. He later completed his Abitur in Spain and studied audio engineering in Cologne. Alongside his music career, he worked as an entertainer at a club hotel in Majorca.

His parents, who each had their own band, supported him from an early age. At just five years old, he recorded his first verses for children’s radio plays in his father’s studio. He also began piano lessons at six and learned to sing and dance. From a young age, he performed at festivals in Spain, singing songs produced by himself and his father. Appearances in Germany followed, including one alongside Max Mutzke, Aura Dione, and Robyn for ProSieben. He started posting covers and original compositions on YouTube, such as Eres Perfecta, which unexpectedly gained hundreds of thousands of views in a short time.

In 2012, he formed the duo KY & Nico with American rapper KY, before both pursued solo careers in spring 2013. Soon after, he was noticed by B-Case, co-producer for DJ Antoine, following the club success of House Party. They began producing together, resulting in tracks like Feel It (planned with Jack Holiday and Tony T) and Lucky L in 2014. The latter, inspired by the comic character Lucky Luke, reached #6 on international DJ charts, #19 on iTunes, and #5 on the Bravo charts, where it remained in the top 10 for over ten weeks. An acoustic version was released a few weeks later. In October 2014, their song Symphony entered the German mainstream airplay charts and Bravo reader charts directly.

With Djorkaeff & Beatzarre and B-Case, he produced the soundtrack for the film *Fack ju Göhte 2*. The tracks He’s Gonna Be Alright and Here Comes the Sun became the most successful songs on the album. The trio also co-wrote Promised Land for Jamaican singer Omi. Nico Santos also contributed to writing Don’t Give Up on Us by Janieck Devy.

Concurrently, in 2015, he recorded Holding On with Swiss DJ and producer Mr Da-Nos, which became the title track for the German film *3 Turks and a Baby*. With this track, he entered the official Swiss singles charts for the first time.

The year 2016 saw the release of Home, created in collaboration with musician Topic. The track reached #12 in Germany, #10 in Austria, and #11 in Australia, where it was certified platinum. Another collaboration, Brothers in Arms with Micar, also falls into the deep house genre. In Portugal, he achieved commercial success in the spring with the tropical house track Waterfalls in collaboration with Lvndscape and Holland Park.

With Mark Forster and the duo Djorkaeff & Beatzarre, he co-wrote Wir sind groß, which entered the German singles charts top 10 directly. This song was the official anthem for Euro 2016 for ZDF and was certified platinum.

In January 2017, the *Tatort* episode titled *Söhne & Väter* aired, for which Santos and his colleagues Djorkaeff & Beatzarre and Michael Beckmann wrote the soundtrack. In April 2017, the single Goodbye to Love was released, featuring Norwegian DJ duo Broiler. German-Turkish actress Gizem Emre appears in the accompanying music video.

In June 2017, Lena Meyer-Landrut presented If I Wasn’t Your Daughter, which she wrote with Nico Santos, who also accompanies her on piano. In late summer 2017, Santos released his solo single Rooftop.

As a co-writer, he contributed to tracks on the album *Cla$$ic* by Bushido and Shindy, as well as to the single Achterbahn by Helene Fischer. He is also known under the alias Santi.