Nico Santos

Bremen, then Mallorca

Nico Santos was born Nico Wellenbrink in Bremen on 7 January 1993 [6]. His family moved to Mallorca when he was a year old [7], and he has spoken fluent Spanish since childhood [1]. As a child he took piano, dance and singing lessons, and later worked as an entertainer at club hotels [6].

After school he went back to Germany and studied sound engineering in Cologne [6].

From YouTube covers to a first hit

As a young man he played festivals in Spain and posted his own songs and covers on YouTube [6]. In 2012 he formed the duo KY & Nico with the US rapper KY, and the duo split in 2013 [6].

“Lucky L”, a 2014 single with the producer B-Case, is a nod to Lucky Luke [6]. In 2015 “Holding On” was written for the German comedy 3 Türken und ein Baby [6].

“Home”, made with the producer Topic in 2016, was his first major hit. It charted in Germany, Austria and Australia [6]. His debut album, Streets of Gold, followed in 2018 [6].

The duet “Better” with Lena Meyer-Landrut spent 26 weeks in the German singles chart [6]. On 12 April 2020 it won the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award for favourite earworm, beating songs by Mark Forster, Tim Bendzko and Sarah Connor [6].

Writing for other artists

He co-wrote Mark Forster's “Wir sind groß” [6]. He also worked on Bushido and Shindy's album Classic [6], and contributed music to the second Fack ju Göhte film [6].

He supported Lena Meyer-Landrut on her fifth studio album, Only Love, L [6]. From 2020 he also released rap and hip hop collaborations under the alias SANTOS, including tracks with Sido and Samra [6].

Coaching on The Voice of Germany

In 2019 he worked as an online coach on The Voice of Germany, looking at contestants who had not got past the blind auditions [6]. He became a coach on the show in 2020, and he returned as a coach in 2021 and 2025 [6].

In May 2020 he won the Free Eurovision Song Contest with “Like I Love You”, becoming the first singer to win it [6].

Ride and the 2026 arena tour

His third album, Ride, has 15 new songs and arrived three years after his self-titled second album, released in 2020 [1]. The official site cites over one billion global streams [1]. Ride includes sessions with Álvaro Soler and ClockClock, and “Mal Amor” is a duet with Álvaro Soler [1].

The single “All Time High” followed on 24 October 2025 [1]. The tour draws on his two new albums, and one of them is his first under the SANTOS alias [2].

The official site lists the arena tour as Arena Tour 2026 [1]. Munich's listing calls the same run “POV: Arena Tour 2026” [5]. The run is listed from 29 October to 11 November 2026 [2], with a Hamburg stop at the Barclays Arena [4].

Berlin follows on 30 October at the Max-Schmeling-Halle [3]. Cologne's LANXESS Arena hosts the show on 31 October, then the official site lists Oberhausen on 2 November, Braunschweig on 3 November, Erfurt on 4 November, Stuttgart on 6 November and Frankfurt on 7 November [1].

The Munich show is at the Olympiahalle on 10 November, with new songs from the double album POV [5]. The listing says P stands for Personal and O for Optimist, and keeps the meaning of the V secret until the album reveals it [5].