Scottish songwriter Nina Nesbitt is no stranger to playing to large audiences. After hearing her perform in Edinburgh back in 2011, Ed Sheeran kickstarted her career by asking her to open his European tour. She’s since gone on to release three acclaimed albums—with her fourth album, Mountain Music, due out this fall—and perform at venues around the world, but the songwriter still couldn’t help being awestruck when asked to open for one of her heroes, Stevie Nicks, at the historic Hyde Park in London (on her birthday, no less!).
Naturally, we asked Nesbitt to bring us behind the scenes of her “best day ever” in London. ”To support one of the most iconic women in music at one of the most legendary venues was a dream come true!” Nesbitt explains. “I loved playing new songs from my upcoming album, Mountain Music, and it’s made me even more excited to release it. It was amazing to watch Stevie’s set afterwards, I feel so inspired. To hear the songs I grew up listening to was really special. I also loved Brandi Carlile’s set. Her music was definitely an inspiration on this upcoming album.”
Check out Nesbitt’s candid photos and captions documenting her day below. Mountain Music is out September 27 and is available for pre-order now via her artist-run label Apple Tree Records.
This is a birthday present my tour manager got me! Possibly the greatest gift to ever exist. As an introvert I find show days can be quite overwhelming and intense, so I’ll happily be adjusting these meters at future shows haha.
I’ve been loving putting looks together for the Stevie Nicks dates. As someone who loves ’70s style, I felt like it was the perfect time to embrace that. I found these mini daisies online and have been wearing them at recent shows. They feel like the 2024 version of the 2014 flower crown.
This was seconds before I walked on stage! I had no idea how many people would turn up. That’s always the exciting and nerve-racking part of playing summer shows. The weather has been rainy and cold in London recently (what’s new!), but just as I walked out the sun decided to show it’s face. Which was lucky—otherwise I would’ve been freezing!
One of my favorite moments was when my best friends joined me on stage for my song “I’m Coming Home”! We’ve known each other since school and all grew up in a little Scottish village together—so to be on stage at Hyde Park was so cool!
I was so pleased with the turnout! It was such a warm and lovely crowd. This is me about to leave stage and wishing I’d had more time with everyone. After this moment, the birthday celebrations truly began.
This is me handing out some rainbow bracelets to people who watched my set! I have a Mountain Map to go alongside my album, and one of the stops is called “Parachute Peak.” It’s drawn to match the album artwork, where you can see a faint rainbow in the background. By coincidence I was also playing the Rainbow Stage at Hyde Park, so I thought it would be fun to theme the bracelets around this.
This was walking off stage after finishing my set! I had such a great time, but this was the moment when I felt like I could relax and enjoy seeing the other artists play!
Here’s the band doing their thing! It’s been so fun to play this new music in a different way. We don’t play to a click track, everything you hear is completely live and free. It means no gig will be exactly the same, and I think that makes it more exciting.
This was the setlist we played. It mostly consisted of the upcoming album, Mountain Music, but we also played a folky version of my song “The Best You Had.” I love taking old songs and trying them in different ways.
Playing Hyde Park with Stevie Nicks was definitely the best way to celebrate my birthday! The girls and I manifested this a few months ago as a bit of a joke, and the fact it actually happened was so surreal and exciting. Obviously I had to bring them along with me.
