We’ll be honest, Dear Reader. We had a bit of a ‘mare pinning down PinkPantheress for this year’s Hype List. We’ll let her off - she’s one of the buzziest acts on the planet right now, and it’s easy to hear why.
Words: Abigail Firth. Photos: Brent McKeever.
This time last year, PinkPantheress didn’t have any songs out. Now she’s one of the world’s most promising new pop stars.
Taking her stage name from her TikTok profile and taking care to never reveal her real name, all we know is she’s 20, from Bath but living in London with her childhood pals, and that she might just be a genius.
Nabbing bits of songs from everywhere, her discography is a musical hodgepodge of old school garage, drum’n’bass, emo, nu-metal, 2000s British pop and more, chewing up all those influences and spitting out something that sounds like Grimes meets Lily Allen via MySpace, Tumblr and TikTok versus ‘Babycakes’ by Three of a Kind. Yeah, that’ll do it.
Practically trademarking ‘new nostalgia’, there’s no wonder she’s blown up on TikTok, the internet home of “anyone remember when…” and Y2K fashion, her self-produced tracks borrow from British classics like Sweet Female Attitude’s ‘Flowers’ and Just Jack’s ‘Starz In Their Eyes’, giving them a 2021 spin with bedroom pop vocals and hyperpop melodies. If you’re not familiar with the massive hits ‘Just For Me’ and ‘Passion’ amongst others, where on EARTH have you been?
