[imagesurce:babyqueen/instagram]
Born and raised in Durban, Baby Queen is taking the global pop-rock scene by storm. Not only does the local rocker have her music featured on a hit Netflix series, she is set to share a stage with the iconic Stevie Nicks in London this July.
Baby Queen, real name Arabella Latham, hails from KZN, but as a teenager, the young woman headed to London with a suitcase full of demo CDs and dreams. Years later, she is firing on all cylinders and becoming a rocker to be reckoned with.
She recently featured in the Netflix show Heartstopper, making a cameo in the second-season finale – “I got my first IMDb credit as prom singer!” – and proving to be an instant hit with global audiences as she navigates life as a young woman through her edgy, confrontational, and rocking tunes.
The journey hasn’t been easy – dreams of rocking the world never are – but the young musician seems to have found her groove.
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Baby Queen has a stage presence reminiscent of a young Sandra Nassic from Guno Apes, and the music has an emotional depth that is rare for a songwriter her age to capture. The whole package works and the UK music scene has taken notice, describing her music as “grunge-coated bubblegum pop fermented with candid tales of growing up, coming out and going overboard”.
Her early anthem ‘Buzzkill’ described her tendency to ruin parties by getting drunk and bursting into tears, while ‘Medicine’ took a wry look at life on antidepressants: “My heart can’t break / because my medication confiscated sex”. Tunes like these soon built an underground following, and a fan club of like-minded musicians.
Even grunge-goddess Courtney Love described her as “a confident lady without one bad song” and Olivia Rodrigo whisked her around Europe as a support act on her Sour tour.
Not bad for a girl from Durbs.
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She is currently touring in support of her album Quarter Life Crises, but Baby Queen is far from being done.
“Quarter Life Crisis isn’t my dream album and it’s not my best album,” she says. “The one thing that I felt after finishing it was, ‘Let me just make my next one. I know what to do now’.”
It would seem so. Carry on and keep rocking Baby Queen.
[source:goodthingsguy&bbc]
