With several No. 1 hits already in her native Holland, Davina’s second album, Higher, released last September, is taking her global. It’s a beautiful record, blending pop with a sharp edge, to cut the sweetness.
“If there is a sweet lyric, then I like the melody darker and rougher to balance it out,” she tells me.
She worked on the album for a year and a half with producer, melody writer and boyfriend Sebastiaan Brouwer. It explores empowerment, inner struggle, and, natch, relationships, in songs like “Out Loud,” “I Won’t Let Go,” and “Panic Attack” (recorded to sound like an actual panic attack).
Like many during the 2010s, she started out posting covers on YouTube. But her career took off in 2016 when Pink marveled at her rendition of “What About Us,” leading to Davina opening for her in the Netherlands.
In 2020, she released her first album, my own world. “If you create your own song, it’s a piece of yourself,” she says. “It’s your flavor, it’s your taste. If people can find themselves in my lyrics, that has a lot of value for me.” And they do: a recent wave of posters are choosing “No One Said It Was Easy” for their TikTok videos.
Davina has irresistible energy onstage, invariably drenched with sweat at the end of a show. It’s rewarding, she says, seeing the connection fans have to her music. When performing “Lullaby,” a song about bullying, she gets close to the audience. “At the final show of last year’s tour, I was able to walk into the audience and hold hands and hug people who were crying. It’s very special.”
This year, she will be supporting Robbie Williams and playing festivals.
“The things I’m most excited about are the things I don’t know yet,” she says. “I’ve left a lot of room for opportunities in 2025.”
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