This May, 88rising unveiled its latest girl group: no na. The Indonesian quartet — made up of members Christy, Baila, Esther and Shaz — debuted with the soaring single “Shoot,” illustrating the group’s knack for vocal harmonies and love of R&B.
Its second single, “Superstitious,” leaned more into pop, and the group says that sweet spot between the two genres is where no na will thrive. The foursome made its live debut this month as 88rising’s annual Head In the Clouds: L.A., their adoptive home after relocating from Indonesia last year to focus on music full time.
Foundation
In December 2022, 88rising brought its celebrated Head in the Clouds festival to Jakarta, Indonesia — marking the event’s first time in Asia and also becoming the unwitting origin story of the label’s newest girl group, no na. Members Baila, Shaz and Christy all met at the festival — and exchanged quick, tepid handshakes, they joke today. While Shaz and Christy come from dance backgrounds, Baila was pursuing music as a solo act at the time, having competed on Indonesian Idol Junior. Six months later, Esther, a singer who had competed on season 10 of Indonesian Idol, completed the quartet, and they started training together in Jakarta with joint dance and vocal lessons. “That’s when we started spending every single day together,” Esther says. Baila adds: “Indonesians are pretty easygoing, and it was so easy for us to get along. We didn’t have to try to like each other.”
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Discovery
The four members of no na were all stealthily scouted by 88rising, an effort helmed by founder and CEO Sean Miyashiro. But when one particular project manager reached out, “We didn’t know that she was from 88,” Esther recalls with a laugh. “They just mentioned, ‘Would you like to be part of a global girl group?’ That kind of scared us at first.” But Shaz jokes, “We stalked her,” and found out that they had a legitimate offer to not only form a global girl group but also move halfway across the world to Los Angeles. (The four members moved there in 2024, sharing an apartment.) While they were immediately aligned on their influences — “pop, reggae, jazz; we all love R&B,” Esther says, shouting out Victoria Monét and FLO as well as “the classics” like Janet Jackson and Diana Ross — they struggled to agree on a group name. After combing through more than 200 options, they agreed on “no na” — a riff on nona, which means “miss” in Indonesian.
Future
Spotlighting its native country is a priority for no na — from the group’s visuals, like filming the stunning music video for debut song “Shoot” back home, to its lyrics, which will incorporate Indonesian phrases. “We want to represent our country to the world, where not a lot of people are familiar with everything about Indonesia,” Shaz says. The act has started to spread the word worldwide: In May, it made its live debut at Head in the Clouds: L.A., which was a full-circle moment. As Esther says: “A dream came true for us.”
This story appears in the June 7, 2025, issue of Billboard.
