There’s a new force to be reckoned with on the alternative pop scene and it comes in the form of the bombastic, explosive and downright genius South African artist Baby Queen. Today she unveiled her debut Internet Religion to the world and what a debut it is piercingly sharp satirical lyrics taking aim at the new digital generation and the way people fake who they are online rather than showing truly who they are.
“I hate the way that is so easy to control your identity online and you become so obsessed with who you are online and how many people are liking your pictures,” Baby Queen explains how song came to be. “I started to write bitterly about the world that I had perceived whilst being here in London, and the way that it had changed me, and the narcissist I had become. I got obsessed with these identities that we cultivate online; the front stage self and the backstage self, who you actually are and who you pretend to be.”
Her sound takes the traditional hooks that will require an excavation crew to get them out of your head and high-octane energy of pop before fusing it with a psychedelia synth twist and a grunge edge. There’s even a dynamic juxtaposition here too with the dark complex lyrics counteracting the more buoyant happy-go-lucky production. Merge all that together with a brilliant music video to match and you’ve got a new star in the making. Baby Queen is pop but not as we know it, she’s much more exciting.