On a day back in 2018, Mi-kaisha Masella, like thousands of other 18 year olds, was awaiting her ATAR results, but there was something else playing on her mind.
“I just wanted to know if I got into NYU,” she tells NITV.
Masella received her acceptance letter 40 minutes after her ATAR and became the first Aboriginal person to attend New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.
“I was literally at home by myself,” she says.
“I facetimed my mum bawling my eyes out and it definitely took a few months for it to set in.”
Masella, a proud Darumbal and Tongan woman, is an R&B-soul-pop singer whose sound has been described as “intriguingly multi-layered” with a voice “just like silk”.
Growing up she was inspired by Alicia Keys and Lauryn Hill, two artists influenced by their own lives in New York and its culture and music scene.
Fortuitously, her acceptance into NYU immersed Masella in the city that shaped her idols.
Her time spent learning at an institute which boasts alumni like Grammy-nominated singer Maggie Rogers and whose artists-in-residence have included Pharrell Williams, she says, was one of the most “mindblowing” experiences of her life.
Mi-kaisha says her time studying at NYU helped build resilience and appreciate her community back home.
“How amazing that I have a community and a family back home that I miss and love so much and then how incredible that I get to build this experience on the other side of the world and build my network, create connections with people and create art and tell stories in a new way,” she said.
“It was beautiful.”
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NYU also opened the door to connect with other First Nations people, particularly her Native American classmates.
“I joined the Native American and Indigenous students group on campus and that was a really beautiful safe space for me,” she says.
“Even though our cultures are so different and we literally come from opposite sides of the planet there are so many shared values that we have between First Nations cultures internationally and some shared experiences with colonisation and just then existing as Indigenous people within a predominantly white institution.
“Ultimately, it just kind of gave me this appreciation, but also like a staunchness in, no matter what space I’m in, no matter what cultural context I’m in, I will always be an Aboriginal and Pacific Islander woman and that doesn’t have to change and it never will change.”
Now back home Masella has released her newest single, Lean on You, a soulful reflection on her time away and a love-letter to those who stuck by her.
The track was written during her time studying at NYU while on a writing trip to Los Angeles.
“Lean on You just speaks to that same concept of loving, appreciating and having gratitude for the people in your life that are there for you, day in, day out,” she says.
“It also speaks a little bit to my experience of growing into a young woman.”
Looking ahead Masella has a new EP she plans to release in early 2026. Sonically, she describes it as experimental, saying that she wanted to push boundaries and “throw paint at the wall to see what sticks”.
“A little bit of R&B, a bit of Afrobeats,” Masella says.
“If there’s anything by me, there’s always going to be a sappy ballad in there somewhere and just kind of an exploration of different genres.”
Songwriting wise, she says the EP will reflect her life over the past two to three years.
“I just try to be honest and vulnerable in the moment when writing these songs,” Masella says.
“I write dozens if not hundreds of songs per year and there’s just a few that kind of follow you, so hopefully those will make their way onto the EP.”
Being back in the Australian music scene, Masella says she would love to see more opportunities for First Nations artists.
“There’s so many things, I could literally have a conversation about this for hours and hours on end, but to give you a short answer it’s just about access to information, to networks, to opportunities," she says, "because we’re here, we’re creating art that is insanely beautiful in my opinion, that is insanely unique and just ultimately a gift to the Australian cultural landscape."
