Nicky Siano is one of the last true pioneers of the inception of New York’s dance music scene, a music genre that later became disco. His first job playing records at New York’s famed club The Round Table, was in 1971. In 1972, at the age of 17, he co-owned, designed, and was the DJ at The Gallery, known by many as the first disco. A place where people came together to dance and called home. It wasn’t just a dance club, it was a place where love was the message every night and gay, straight, black, white, Hispanic- all came together dancing, reveling, and bathing in the lights, sounds, and embrace of the atmosphere Nicky had created.  

As a club owner and innovator of DJ technology, Nicky along with a small group of fellow groundbreakers and friends, initially struggled to convince a rigid bureaucracy that club DJs mattered and were worth the record companies’ time. Through tenacity and resourcefulness, these DJs were able to secure the latest records, despite the barriers, and consequently brought exposure to songs that otherwise never would have been heard.  As a result, Nicky  discovered and played more future disco classics at The Gallery than any other club for the years ‘73-‘76. Nicky is credited with launching  the careers of Grace Jones, D.C. LaRue, Loleatta Holloway, Larry Levan, and Frankie Knuckles, to name a few.

It was no coincidence that when Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager opened Studio 54, they chose Nicky as one of the two original DJs.

Unfortunately, addiction took hold of Nicky, and he was fired from Studio 54. After getting clean and sober, Nicky looked around and found a new epidemic taking the lives of many friends. He then began a career working as an AIDS counselor in the early days, working to try and get an understanding of a disease that was wreaking havoc on so many. His time and work with those impacted lead him to write, No Time to Wait, a guide to living and treating HIV. His groundbreaking book is known as one of the first books that showed patients and their loved ones how to fully participate in treatment including non-conventional options and is credited as a game changer in extending many people’s lives.

Nicky has mixed and produced more than 30 dance classics. In 1977 he was the first DJ to produce a record, the underground classic, “Kiss Me Again”  by Dinosaur on Sire Records, which he became partners with famed musician Arthur Russell, and sold more than 300,000 copies.  David Byrne was the featured guitarist on the jam. “Kiss Me Again” was re-released in 2024 by Week-End Records. Nicky’s latest venture is on the Byrne founded Luaka Bop, a remix with Annie and the Caldwells of “Wrong: You Dropped a Bomb on Me.” The song is currently tearing up the charts and filling up the dance floors across the globe.   

He is sought out for lectures and films. He can be seen in the BBC/PBS documentary series “Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution”(2024); Paramount’s  “Disco’s Revenge.” (2024)  HBO’s “BeeGees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” (2020); and he has appeared in over twenty productions concerning the 70s dance movement, and music therein.