"I feel like a baby artist right at the beginning of their journey, but I'm already preparing myself for what comes next," says Chloe Qisha. She has her sights firmly set on becoming a pop titan. "Whether that happens next year, or in five years' time, I want to be part of that conversation. It sounds very big-headed, but that's the ambition."

If you've heard the music, you know superstardom is a case of when, not if. Both her debut 'Chloe Qisha' EP and its 2025 follow-up 'Modern Romance' EP are full of smart, catchy pop anthems that dance between love, lust and heartbreak with sincerity and dry humour. After her first-ever headline gig at the tail end of 2024, last year was spent opening for Coldplay at Wembley Stadium, supporting Sabrina Carpenter at Hyde Park and playing the main stage at All Points East ahead of Tyla, JADE and RAYE, as well as heading out on her own headline run.

"The first half of the year felt really natural because it's what I had been working towards for years, but after that… I don't think anyone could have prepared me for how crazy it was." It's December, and Chloe has just finished up the final batch of studio sessions for 2025 before she picks things back up in January. For the next week, though, she's catching up on some much-needed sleep. "This has been the busiest year for me so far. I'm very proud of what I've achieved. I'm a little burnt out, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Also, if that's how busy 2025 was, can you imagine what the next couple of years will be like?" she grins. "We're just getting started."

Chloe Qisha has always been a loud and proud cheerleader of pop. She spent her childhood listening to illegally downloaded bangers from Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream' and Lady Gaga's 'The Fame', as well as occasionally singing at talent shows put on by her Malaysian international school. But she never had pop star dreams of her own. "It would be easy to paint my parents as the stereotypically strict Asians, but really, there was just a lack of knowledge [about how to make it], so nobody encouraged me to pursue music," she admits.

That changed when she moved to the UK at 17. "I was bored, picked up a guitar and decided to learn 'Iris' by The Goo Goo Dolls." After feeling pigeonholed at school, learning a new skill online helped her discover who she was beyond her academic achievements. "I wanted to showcase that in a safe space, so I started posting on SoundCloud. The 'no visual' aspect really helped with my confidence." She shared them with a very close-knit circle of friends at college, and it was the first time she was told she could actually sing. "That was an eye-opening moment." She eventually progressed to YouTube as she started uni, studying psychology with the goal of becoming a therapist, but she still wasn't thinking about being discovered.

"It just wasn't a consideration. It probably would have been if I were aware that was a possibility, but I had no idea how any of that worked beyond going on The Voice or American Idol." And that was never an option due to a lack of self-belief. "Even thinking about doing something like that now just feels terrifying."

It all changed when she received an email from someone at Warner who'd seen her covers and wanted to chat. With retrospect, she knows the meeting meant nothing – a speculative shot in the dark from someone ready to take the credit in case Chloe blew up organically ("scouts be scouting"), but at the time, it was the first proper sign that Chloe could have a career in music. "My parents taught me that it's fine to take risks and pursue more than a safe, salaried job but only if there's substantial evidence that it's something that can potentially happen."

She stopped filling out applications for a master's degree and spent the next few years meeting various producers, songwriters, lawyers and managers to try and make this new dream a reality. "It felt a lot like speed dating," she explains. Taking time out from studying towards a clear career path for something new and untested felt like a huge gamble. "It's good it happened when I was younger and more starry-eyed. If it happened now, I'm in my mid-20s, I'd be like, 'Are you stupid?'."

In less than a year, Chloe was writing decent pop songs, but decent wasn't enough. "They always felt like they had a shelf life because I was just chasing what was big at the time." She had a LAUV phase, a Julia Michaels era and a brief Phoebe Bridgers chapter as well. "It was kinda ridiculous."

"I wanted everything to be very intentional and build a world that felt very cohesive," she explains, but that's easier said than done. In total, she wrote more than 40 songs with 70 different collaborators before she teamed up with Rob Milton, who's previously worked with The 1975, Holly Humberstone and Hard Life. In their first session together, they created 'Scary Movie', a rumbling indie-pop banger that finally captured Chloe's personality in song. It was so special, she scrapped plans for an imminent debut EP and started over with him. "That was another huge risk, but it's the best decision I've ever made."

The pair stuck to guitar pop for the My Chemical Romance-inspired 'Evelyn' before they dabbled in 80s funk after hearing Miya Folick's cover of LCD Soundsystem classic 'North American Scum' on Apple TV's horny period drama The Buccaneers. It inspired breakout hit 'I'm Lied, I'm Sorry'. "It was so different to everything else we'd done, I was convinced it was really shit for at least two weeks," she laughs. Eventually, she came around, and that smirking anthem laid the foundation for everything that followed. "As we pulled together the songs and the visual world for that first EP, I could see the potential of this project for the very first time. I didn't have that confidence to begin with, but the more we wrote, the more I came into my own."

The decision to work on Chloe Qisha behind the scenes goes against the current trend of artists showcasing as much of themselves as possible, as quickly as possible. "I'm a bit of a perfectionist," she shrugs. "I always wanted to be more than just a pretty voice, and that takes time. Plus, if I did end up going back to psychology, nobody would ever have known that for a couple of years I tried to be a pop star."

Chloe Qisha "soft-launched" things with soaring acoustic ballad 'VCR Home Video', a snapshot of the quiet calm ahead of an inevitable breakup. "It was my first release, and I was obviously scared, so that was me dipping my toe into the water." Outrageously sleek follow-up 'I Lied, I'm Sorry' blew up on streaming, was covered by Kelly Clarkson and very much threw Chloe into the deep end of pop. "It completely changed the game for us. Things started moving a lot faster after that."

For the first time, Chloe had fans reacting to her music while other artists were using the track as a reference in their own studio sessions. "That was really crazy because for five years, my life had been going into sessions and being influenced by other people. It was just really grounding – you can get swept away in the hype, but really, the goal is to put out good, meaningful music that resonates with people."

Chloe Qisha is the first to admit she's not the most prolific of writers, but that just means she has to make every studio session count. "I'm so locked in. That's why my hit rate is hopefully so good." It's something of an understatement. She followed up 'Chloe Qisha' with 'Modern Romance', an EP of celebratory coming-of-age anthems that don't shy away from the cringey excess of being young and in love. They're painfully honest, awkwardly funny and insatiably catchy.

"I always thought of Chloe Qisha as a persona, a slightly crazier version of myself," she admits. The spunky character play let her be more daring with the lyrics than anything she could do with sincere, heart-on-the-sleeve pop. "But the more I'm in it, the more I realise that Chloe Qisha is just me."

Writing songs about lust, sex and self-love feels "liberating", says Chloe. "I'm able to explore different parts of myself through Chloe Qisha, and I'm so grateful to her for that." It's something she talks a lot about on her next project. "It's kinda about the push and pull of being in a long-term monogamous relationship but also not forgetting that you're still a very sexual being," she says. "Sabrina is not the only girl who's out here writing songs about being horny."

The first taste of that new era is 'So Sad So Hot', an irresistibly pulsating pop banger that hides tear-stained make-up behind decadent excess. "It's about a very niche feeling of being very depressed but also being able to look in the mirror and say, 'God damn, I look good'." It came together on the last day of a Los Angeles writing trip where Chloe and Rob teamed up with Caroline Ailin (her CV includes Dua Lipa's 'New Rules', PinkPantheress' 'Stateside' and Charli xcx's 'Good Ones'). "It's the part of the story where the character has just got her heart broken, but is still being hit on. Even in the lowest of lows, you can almost weaponise your sadness and use it to your advantage."

She can't really explain why that song was the first taste of 'Chloe Qisha 3'. "Listening to it makes me want to be at some seedy American high school party or in a hot tub in Euphoria. She's just a banger"

"My first two EPs set a really good foundation for who I am and what I represent. Now we have that world, it's more about having fun and seeing how other people interpret that vision," says Chloe. She's been inviting more collaborators into her orbit and has also taken inspiration from playing live. "I always thought my live show would be me fronting a band, maybe playing a guitar, but no – I'm up there with a wireless microphone, running about the stage. I want to lean into that pop bitch energy going forward. This next chapter is very deliberate with that."

Plenty of pop heads have called Chloe Qisha the next Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo or Chappell Roan, but the early hype has also inspired flickers of backlash, while shaky mobile phone footage of early Chloe Qisha gigs has been picked apart in the more toxic corners of the internet. "There's no grace for new artists. People expect you to be able to perform like Beyoncé from your very first release and produce world-class pop at the same level as Chappell or Charli. You get bombarded by trolls if you do anything that doesn't meet those insane standards," she explains. "I've realised how horrible the internet can be. It's not natural to know what Karen from Year 3 is doing nowadays, let alone what hundreds of haters think about you."

It's why she's a little nervous about new single 'YDH' and not just because its original title is a nightmare for radio censors. The hot and heavy track ("Clutching my pearls at the thought of his… personality") is easily the most flamboyant she's gone, but larger than life has always been Chloe's M.O. "There are flourishes of musical theatre and drama in all of my songs, but this one is definitely a wild card," she grins. "It's just been a very sexy year."

Despite the fear of backlash, Chloe is determined to do what feels right rather than try to people-please. "The songs are authentic to who I am. I feel strongly enough about them that I need them to be out in the world to represent me."

"To have a long career, you do need to take risks as long as they're authentic to you," she continues. A student of Gaga's fearless reinventions, she's currently finding inspiration in Chappell Roan. "She's not afraid to be disruptive or speak up about things that most other people are scared to speak up about. I hope to just follow in a similar vein – as long as the output is feeling good to me, I'm not worried about ruffling people's feathers.

"In a really naive way, I still don't really know why my music is connecting with people," she admits. After years of working in the shadows, "it is still weird to think that people are listening to my songs." Some are more pained than others, but every track she's released has a sense of triumph to it. "Chloe Qisha is so strong and fully formed, and we never waver from that, so maybe that's why it's connecting. I think there's just something so appealing and attractive about an artist who is so sure of themselves."

Pop music has changed a lot since Chloe first started out. Rather than sugary, overly polished and radio-friendly, the past 18 months have seen plenty of unique, messy and personality-led takes on the genre. "It's been so inspiring," says Chloe. "I feel so lucky to be one of the artists coming through in the wake of this big wave of pop girlies who have paved the way. We've also seen RAYE and Olivia Dean having their moment. There's this excitement that's spanning the breadth of pop music, and I'm so here for it. I can't wait to see what comes next"

There's no word yet if 'Chloe Qisha 3' will be an EP or something longer, but she's been referencing Addison Rae's debut album 'Addison' a lot in the studio. "Everything about it is perfection. She's so confident, and the world her and her team have built is just incredible."

Before the next release, though, are the results of the BBC Sound Of 2026 poll. "I'm very grateful to be part of these shortlists and recognised for the work that I've done, even if it does feel a bit bizarre to be compared to artists that seem like they're leagues ahead of me," says Chloe. "It feels like there's this expectation that I need to be as big as kwn or Sombr now." She's not too worried, though.

"The thing is, I'm being acknowledged for the music that's already out there, but I feel like I've already levelled up massively. I end every year thinking I've written the best songs I'll ever write, and every year I've managed to top it," she explains. "Like any ambitious artist, it feels like there's something to prove now."

"It does sometimes feel like the universe led me here, but you do have to make big girl decisions along the way, and that does involve a lot of risk-taking," she adds.

And beyond that, Chloe promises a "more elevated version" of what's come before. "I'm so confident, and I know myself so thoroughly now. There's going to be a lot more dancing in 2026," she says. "And, if it's even possible, things are going to get a lot sexier as well."

Taken from the February 2026 issue of Dork. Chloe Qisha's new single 'YDH' is out very soon indeed.