Niki Darling, Ava Raiin

Niki Darling is a singer and songwriter born and bred from New York City. Her name pays direct tribute to Prince, one of her biggest musical influences. Her own sound is of an Afro-Futurism mixture of Pop, Rock and R&B with live guitars. Niki got her start as the lead singer of Hip-Hop band Pants Velour, signed to the legendary label, Tommy Boy Entertainment. Her musical career has led her to perform around the world.

Called an "audio-diva superhero" by Solange's blog Saint Heron, AVA RAIIN’s self-titled debut album charted #9 on the Billboard R&B album sales chart, ranked highly on 4 other Billboard charts, and debuted #6 R&B and Top 40 all genres on iTunes. Her 2016 single and video ‘Eagle Eye’ premiered on AfroPunk and was named Vimeo ‘Staff Pick’.

Raised with her twin sister in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Houston/Willis, Texas, she settled in NYC after completing undergrad at The University of Texas at Austin. Open mics turned into backing vocal gigs across the spectrum including stints with Melissa Etheridge, Solange, Blood Orange/Devonte Hynes, Carly Rae Jepsen, Jack Antonoff/Bleachers, Chrisette Michele and contributions to a handful of recordings most notably Blood Orange’s Freetown Sound and Negro Swan albums.