She may only be 17, but Soller-born singer-songwriter Nuria Foreman is brimming with confidence and the pride and glory of her American and British parents, not to mention Queen’s College, which she says has given her huge support over the past few years. Nuria and her family moved to Barcelona for ten years when she was aged three only to return to Mallorca three years ago and since then she has been studying for her GCSEs, AS and now her A Levels at Queen’s College.
New school term
However, on the eve of returning for the new school term on September 5, she will be competing in the first round of the semifinals of Palma City Council’s Pop-Rock 2025 contest. She has been selected as one of the sixteen finalist groups and artists who will compete in the semi-finals, scheduled for 4, 5, 11 and 12 September, at the Es Gremi and La Movida venues. The sixteen finalists are: Born, El Cairo, Jenny Drama Queen, Jon Sickers, Licata, Manena, Merak, Mon Joan Tiquat, naXisca, Nuria Foreman, Rick Sena, Soy David Goodman, Tebals, The Ripples, The Vil Veins and U.R. Bad.
From these performances, the five groups that will participate in the grand final will be selected. The final will be held on 27 September at Ses Voltes in Palma. The selected candidates reflect a wide range of ages and musical styles, with a special focus on women and bands made up of young people and teenagers.
Great talent on the island
The top three winners will receive contracts worth 3,000 euros, 2,000 and 1,000 respectively, to be part of the Palma City Council’s cultural programme in 2026. In addition, the selected groups will be able to perform at paid events in venues such as the Fira del Disc de Mallorca, the Premis Enderrock, the Mallorca Live Festival, the Mobo Fest and the Claustre Festival de Menorca. So no pressure for Nuria; that said she already considers herself a winner.
“Just getting this far has been a wonderful experience. Meeting other local musicians of all styles and genres has been great and there is so much exciting talent on the island. It’s amazing, so just to have been part of the process has been a very worthwhile experience and I’m happy, very happy to have been part of it here on the island,” she told the Bulletin this week.
Nuria was born to play, write and perform. Her parents met while both were studying classical music at university. Her brother is a highly talented piano player while Nuria began playing the piano and cello from a very early age. She is now teaching herself the guitar and will play guitar during one of her semi-final performances.
Lockdown
“Yes so music has always been a very important part of my family and my life. My parents have been so supportive, they are my biggest fans and, while I may have resented having had to learn the piano at such a young age, I look back now and feel so grateful that I did,”· she said. “But while my parents and I have been classically trained, that does not mean we are stuck in the classics, far from it. We all listen to such a wide variety of music; my selection is very eclectic. That classic training nevertheless gave me a very sound structural grounding with regard to song writing,” she explained.
“I think there are two other reasons. One is that during lockdown, at home we all formed a group and would jam together and that gave me the space and time to really discover my love for music. Then shortly after returning to Mallorca aged 13 I went to a Billie Eilish concert and she really super inspired me and I decided that I have to do this (music) with my life so I started writing.
An all-girl band
“I was at Queen’s College, I did my GCSEs there, I’ve just done my year 12 exams and, yeah, it’s a great school. They’ve grown a lot in the performing arts especially. They gave me the opportunity to take my Drama GCSE and now I’m doing music A Level, Spanish music and history. I formed a band with fellow students - an all-girl band. We play at Christmas fairs and schools events, so the school has helped, encouraged and backed me very much. “The school is definitely trying to help give a voice to young musicians,” she added.
“And like I said, back home, between the various members of the family, we all play various instruments; my dad practically all of them. So I’ve grown up listening to a lot of music, all styles and genres and my parents have always pushed me along and I’m very grateful for that. But apart from having been inspired by my parents, I listen to all types of different music, I’m pretty open to everything but my main influences are Phoebe Bridgers, Olivia Rodrigo, Birdy, Lana Del Rey and also some Bossa nova. Recently I’ve been trying to expand my song writing genres to be less mainstream, I try to incorporate as many genres and styles as possible.
Always experimenting
“I’ve always had that singer-songwriter genre, I guess my sound is pop - soft pop. But one of the songs I’ve entered into the competition was an experiment and I guess it ended up as a techno pop track, so that’s been exciting, something new for me. I’m always experimenting and that change came about through production, which I’ve taught myself and that gives me the freedom to pretty much do what I want with my songs. So that way I can control the direction in which my music is going,” Nuria explained. “It was a risky submission to the competition, but it worked,” she added.
“I’ve also submitted songs to other competitions and academies and this year; with my songs and the confidence, I felt ready to move forward. One of the two songs I submitted had already made it into the top 30 of Song Academy and the other was my techno experiment. To be honest I was not expecting anything so I was really surprised when I got the email that I had made the semi-finals,” she said.
And now, win or lose, with a year left of school what’s the plan for the future? “Music is definitely going to be my career. I really couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. The next steps - I’m going to be applying to universities in the UK and America to study song writing and production and also popular music because it’s also about the marketing and publishing, social media to get into the industry. And from there on I’ll see where my degrees take me.
“But right now what I’m doing is just focusing on trying to perform, produce and write as much as possible. I love performing. The first time that I really knew what I wanted to do with my life was when I was 10 and I was super into musical theatre, still am, love it. At my old school we did Matilda, the full length musical and I was Matilda. I think that really changed me as a person because it made me love performing. It was hard work, but it really paid off and I went on to do a number of other musicals after that. “There’s definitely a sensation, be it performing in theatre or as a band, that can’t be replicated anywhere else,” Nuria said.
That said she says an inspiration for a song can come from anywhere and at anytime. “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea and by 3am I’ve written a song. I don’t have a particular message. I could be writing about an idea, a film, a TV show, feelings, experiences, all kinds of things can spark my imagination,” she said.
“But it’s not an easy industry. I’m not going into this for super fame, the chances of that are pretty low to be honest. But as long as I’m working in the music industry I’ll be happy. And today, of course, key to success in music is social media. We would be lost without it and I’ve set up TikTok and Instagram accounts with little snippets of my music and messages and I’ve already got an encouraging and growing following. It’s a really supportive and encouraging community that’s come together and that’s very satisfying,” she said. And long may it last and grow.
To follow and listen to Nuria: open.spotify.com/intl-es/artist/5Hp2cj9UWzQITLGi96NTCm?si=I6xCAhY3Toy3XCPqpmk5sg
www.tiktok.com/@nuria.foreman?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
www.instagram.com/nuria.foreman/