Contemporary tracks like Aaliyah's "At Your Best (You Are Love)", Jennifer Love Hewitt's "Cool With You", Julia Fordham's "(Love Moves in) Mysterious Ways" and Celine Dion's "I Love You, Goodbye" were chosen to fit the young and student fan base of Nina. The film and sound recording of the album was very raw, so that listeners will almost think they were there at PHI Resto & Bar themselves, gushing over her and cheering all the more when her surprise guests came out and joined her for a couple of very interesting duets. Nina collaborated with three of her in-demand Warner labelmates. The first one to sing with her was romantic balladeer Bautista on "Burn". She admitted that they both did not have a rehearsal and Bautista looked tired, so they just did retakes to perfect the duet. R&B balladeer Thor followed, and he performed "The Closer I Get to You" with Nina. The two were described to have matched vocally, note for note. She also got to bust some hip-hop grooves, when she did an upbeat urban-styled version of "Coloured Kisses" together with Dice & K9's mad pup, Trapp. The duo took the song into a whole new different sound and arrangement. As an added bonus, the album also features Nina's biggest single of 2004—"I Don't Want to Be Your Friend" which was recorded in the studio and not part of the live concert. The track was specially written by international songwriter Diane Warren. The album is notable for having a running time of more than 80 minutes on a single standard compact disc, and for being one of the first OPM albums to be presented in a digipak. Aside from impressive huge sales and three number one singles in it, "Nina Live!" was also well received by music critics, earning favorable reviews. Ginnie Faustino-Galgana of "Titik Pilipino" gave the album three and a half out of five stars, praising the Soul Siren's vocal ability and skills, and stated that "[Nina]'s vocal range is decidedly wide. Her voice itself has proven itself youthful and adaptable to any beat [...] By virtue of the familiarity with the covered songs, as well as Nina's talent, it is no wonder that this album has been churning one hit after another [...] Overall, this album only proves that Nina can do wonderfully with covers." However, she thought that Nina can do better with originals, saying "I believe Nina has enough talent to establish herself with her own sound.