In "yours, nico," Nico Santos traces a life shaped by island childhood, early loss, and restless ambition, from failing grades and a friend’s death to dropping out, sleeping on studio floors, and finally breaking through. The repeated idea that one song can change everything gives way to a quieter truth: fame still left something missing until he married a longtime friend and became a father. Home, he realizes, is not a place but the people who made him.
yours, nico Lyrics by Nico Santos
Five years. Dipped my feet in the white sand
This is all you do when you grow up on this island
The perfect childhood. I’m living proof
Doing MJ moves in the living room
Every Sunday, we got up in the Chevy
Madonna, Prince, Sting listening from the back seat
It’s the first thing that I learned from daddy
“You don’t need much to be happy.”
I was 12 years old, when we had to move out
Lost a little money and the Chevy, and our big house
New school. Felt like I was an outcast
Wednesday detention. My grades went down fast
And when my teacher said I was good for nothing
What my teacher said was good for nothing
They couldn’t break my hopes. I kept fighting
Next verse, next chapter on the island
At 15, life was getting depressing
Damn! It hurts looking back. Now, my friend is in heaven
They say every loss is a lesson
What you take for granted could be lost in a second
I made a pact to take each breath
Like it’s my last
And make the best
Of every single day that lay ahead
Life is now. So, you’d better stay ahead
Time is money. And life won’t ever pay you back
At 17, I dropped out of high school
Into the real world
Let it be my school
The limelight drew me into the nighttime
In hindsight, I knew it’s what I’d do for a lifetime
At 19, a producer invited me
To come to his city
Got on a flight
The same night
See
I couldn’t believe a label wanted to sign me
So, I left the island and my whole life behind me
Went in blindly to fall on my face
Wrong time, wrong place
I was wasting my days
Stuck in a rut
Time to pack up
All my bags again
The next verse is ’bout my time in Berlin
At 22, was the start of a friendship
They gave me a chance, and I was dying to land shit
Rough around the edges. Yeah. I slept on a mattress
On the studio floor. Still, I needed more practice
Nine-to-five, five-to-nine
Putting in time
With a line
Someone told me in the back of my mind
“You’re only one song away from the rest of your life.”
Make the next song you write
Be the best of your life
At 25, felt like all my hope was used-up
Everything flopped. Started feeling like I screwed up
But like an elevator, it started to move up
Soon enough
I was shouting down from the rooftop
My songs blew up. This was a dream
I mean
This was my dream since I started to speak
I counted my blessings for the life I was living
Always driven by ambition. Still, something was missing
At 27, it started with texting
“Happy birthday. How are you?”
I mean, “Can you imagine?”
We’d already been friends for a handful of years
And our friends back then already said it for years
“She’s the one.”
I guess, I found the love of my life
In the eyes of someone I’d known for half of my life
For all the things I’ve done wrong, at least one thing was right
When I made you my wife
You made me the proudest man alive
When I was 31, our whole life was changing
But anticipation still came with complications
For weeks, we were going through tears, sweat and blood
If there’s a god, he was testing way more than our patience
Time stopped the day you arrived
Time stopped the moment, when you opened your eyes
When you grabbed my finger for the very first time
I truly knew that I would never find a line or a rhyme
To describe the miracle you turned my life into
It’s like I see a better version of myself in you
Already knew you’re always gonna be my best friend
And with you in my arms, I’ve got the world in my hands
33. The last years were crazy
Life on a daily doesn’t fail to amaze me
And, maybe, it took the ups and downs to shape me
But shout-out to the people around me, “You made me!”
When I’m on the road, I’m often alone
It’s not the same, when I’m talking to my mum on the phone
When you miss it the most, then you wonder what home is
Home is where my heart is. So, I’m never homeless
