Nicole Dollanganger

### Family

Susan Bell (mother), Wesley Bell (father), Susan "Q" (maternal grandmother), Robert "Bobby" (maternal grandfather)

**Nicole Ann Bell** (born September 8, 1991, in Scarborough, Toronto), better known by her stage name, **Nicole Dollanganger**, is a Canadian singer-songwriter and artist. She has been releasing music as Nicole Dollanganger since 2010. Her stage name is a reference to the *Dollanganger* *Series* of novels by V. C Andrews.

## Early Life

Nicole Dollanganger was born Nicole Ann Bell in Scarborough, Toronto on September 8, 1991, to Wesley "Wes" Bell, an avid ventriloquist doll collector, and Susan "Susie" Bell, an avid early 1900's carnival doll collector.

Dollanganger mainly grew up in rural Whitchurch–Stouffville, Toronto; a small town known for its agriculture and annual strawberry festival. Over the years, however, she also bounced to and from Southwest Florida. In 2009, she graduated from Stouffville District Secondary School in Whitchurch-Stouffville. Before becoming a singer, Dollanganger stated that for a brief time she wanted to be a novelist.

After graduating, Dollanganger enrolled at Ryerson University where she studied film. "When I was in film school", Dollanganger said, "the first professor I met more or less immediately had a large talk with us about the weirdness in the West when it comes to portrayals of sex and violence in art. She believed that sex was a normal act and shouldn't involve shame, censoring, guilt, regret, etc., etc. and films that celebrated sexuality were fine. She was probably one of my first introductions to this idea that sexuality – and, in particular, female sexuality – could be explored without shame. That it could be honest and that honesty didn't make it vulgar. Up until I met her I had a very warped understanding of how sexual I was allowed to be – of what was appropriate for me. This embarrassment around it [is] completely unnecessary."

In 2012, right after releasing Curdled Milk, Dollanganger "had to be admitted to a hospital program" and went on bed rest for a year - dropping out of Ryerson University for the first time. She states, "I could probably count on my hands how many times I left the house throughout that year, actually". Dollanganger continues, "and after that period, I was a completely different person. Everything in my life had changed and I think for the first time I kind of came into myself". In 2013, she stated that she had beaten anorexia nervosa and anorexia athletica.

In the early months of 2014, Dollanganger dropped out of Ryerson University for the second and final time because she "was having some other problems" and had "since been making a living off of music/merch sales and working part-time".

## Career

Dollanganger began posting music to Tumblr and MySpace in 2010. Until 2016, her music was strictly only available for purchase on Bandcamp; with the exception of a few homemade CD-Rs and cassettes. In May of 2014, she was signed to Yellow K Records; however, no projects were released through the label. In April of 2015, Dollanganger flew to LA to meet with Grimes and James Brooks when Natural Born Losers was in its demo stages. In August of 2015, Grimes publicly announced her creation of the Eerie Organization - a platform to "to fucking put [*Natural Born Losers*] out." *Natural Born Losers* was then the first album recorded outside of her home. In 2016, she signed with Run For Cover Records and reissued two of her albums, Ode To Dawn Wiener: Embarrassing Love Songs and Observatory Mansions on cassettes, CDs, and vinyl.

## Discography

**Albums**:

* *Curdled Milk* (2012)
* *Flowers of Flesh and Blood* (2012)
* *Ode To Dawn Wiener: Embarrassing Love Songs* (2013)
* *Observatory Mansions* (2014)
* *Natural Born Losers* (2015)
* *Heart Shaped Bed* (2018)
* *Married in Mount Airy* (2023)

**EPs**:

* *Columbine* (2013)
* *Empty Homes* (2014)
* *Unreleased* (2014)
* *BabyLand* (2014)
* *Greta Gibson Forever* (2015)
* *Covers* (2016)
* *Cute Aggression* (2017)

**Singles**:

* *My Funeral Boy* (2013)
* *Ode to Danzig* (2013)
* *Christian Woman* (2016)
* *Chapel* (2016)
* *Have You Seen Me?* (2016)
* *Beautiful and Bad* (2016)
* *Observatory Mansions II* (2016)
* *Cute Aggression* (2017)
* *Lemonade* (2018)
* *Whispering Glades* (2021)
* *Gold Satin Dreamer* (2022)
* *Runnin' Free* (2022)

## Tours

*See a full list of concert dates here.*

* Rhinestone Cowgirls Tour (2015)
* Alex G Tour (2016)
* Summertime In Hell Tour (2016)
* Citizen Tour (2016)
* Forever Tour (2017)
* The New Reality Tour (2018)
* Headlining Tour (2019)