Bay Area singer Nezza’s parents danced proudly in the Outside Lands crowd

Although she now lives in Los Angeles, San Jose-raised Vanessa Hernández, who performs under the name Nezza, began her second set of the day at Outside Lands in typical homegrown fashion — by screaming out “Bay Areaaaaaaa.”

Read more San Diego woman admits to murdering wife decades after killing former husband

She kicked off the festival Friday on the Twin Peaks stage in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, and barely an hour later made her way over to the Duboce Triangle stage for an encore set where she commanded a dedicated set of fans, one of whom held up a sign that said, “The Bay loves Nezza.” 

“This is my first-ever festival,” Nezza told the crowd. “What better place than the Bay? Whether you know me from my YouTube days, or whether you know me from Dodgers stadium, I want to say thank you so much, it means the world to me as an independent artist, still self-funding all of this,” then launched into her song “Gigi.” 

Nezza drew controversy back in 2025 when she performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a Dodgers game in Spanish. According to Nezza, the team initially supported the Spanish-language performance, but then walked back its permission on game day. She went ahead with the Spanish version anyway, and was later met with conflicting reports about the Dodgers’ response.

Born to Dominican and Colombian immigrant parents, Nezza sings in a combination of English and Spanish. Her lyrics flow over contemporary Latin music rhythms and R&B beats that invoke early 2000s Neptunes nostalgia. Midway through her set, she spotted her parents dancing enthusiastically in the crowd and called them up to the stage, drawing huge applause. “I’m a proud daughter of the most amazing immigrants ever,” she said.

Nezza grew up focusing on dance, which brought her to LA to work as a backup dancer.

Read more Trump cancels protections at famous Utah trails, canyons and landmarks

“I started off as a dancer. Funny story, none of us knew that I could sing,” she told SFGATE. “Nobody knew, because dance was such the focus, and all my time went to dance. And I would sing in the shower sometimes, but like, no one ever told me, ‘Hey, like, you’ve got a voice.’” A talent show at Santa Clara High School was her first experience onstage, at age 17; she sang Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.”

At Outside Lands, she teased three songs from her debut album “Sweat,” which is scheduled to be released on Sept. 18. 

Nezza may have moved to LA, but she’s still proud to represent her hometown, and has a very Bay Area opinion on where visitors should get tacos.

“Just go to La Vic’s. I always say La Vic’s, plus orange sauce.  Also La Vic’s carne asada fries. Oh my God, I’m going there right now,” she joked.

Melissa Cho contributed to this report.