TikTok phenomenon PinkPantheress has won BBC Radio 1’s Sound Of 2022 – marking her out as one of the UK’s most promising new pop stars.
The 20-year-old only started releasing music a year ago, but her songs, which place breathy vocals over retro garage samples, rapidly went viral.
By August, she had two songs in the Top 40, and Coldplay covered her single, Just For Me, in Radio 1’s Live Lounge.
But the singer, who goes by her TikTok username, remains shrouded in mystery.
All we know is that she comes from Bath and currently lives in London, where she’s studying film.
Her real name remains a secret and, until relatively recently, she didn’t show her face on social media.
“I find it easier to not lay every single card on the table,” she tells the BBC. “I like my privacy and I felt like, if I have my music out and my face everywhere, it would start getting too much for people.”
- Scroll down to read the full interview with PinkPantheress
The secrecy adds to the allure of her music – where drum and bass beats clatter around stories of obsession and disappointment.
Mostly written in the dead of night in her university dorm room, they capture the transient, bleary-eyed revelations of a 3am comedown; with dark, danceable instrumentals adding a sinister edge to her ethereal vocals.
She started posting 12-second snippets of her music to TikTok last January, using the app as a “focus group” to decide which songs to complete.
One of those tracks, Pain, based on a sample of Sweet Female Attitude’s Flowers, caught fire in January and, in its finished version, ended up at number 35 on the UK singles chart.
Later signed to Parlophone records, she released her debut mixtape, To Hell With It, in October, shuffling her early home productions with new material recorded in the studio.Media caption,Watch the moment PinkPantheress found out that she’s the Sound Of 2022 winner
A product of the attention span economy, her capsule pop songs rarely last longer than two minutes, but they pack in so many hooks that you never feel short-changed.
“I just get really tired of singing the same melody again and again,” she explains. “By the time I’ve finished one melody, I’m like, ‘OK, I can do better,’ so then I move on to another one and another one.
“But every time I write a song, I think it’s going to be three minutes – then I see the length and it’s always, like, one minute!
“So it’s not something I consciously do but it just ends up being the case. I don’t think it necessarily is a bad thing.”
Millions of TikTok followers agree – as do the 130 industry experts who voted for PinkPantheress to win the Sound Of 2022, including Sir Elton John, Jade Thirlwall, Ed Sheeran and Billie Eilish.
“I fell in love with PinkPantheress’ boldness and playfulness with sound,” says Radio 1’s Clara Amfo. “It takes a certain type of vim to play around with classic records and make them sound fresh and captivating and she does that with aplomb.”
“I’m honestly gassed, my dad’s going to be so happy!” says PinkPantheress upon learning she’s won.
“I had self-belief from the beginning but when other people start telling you stuff like this, it genuinely keeps you going.”
Indie-pop duo Wet Leg came second in this year’s list, with powerhouse vocalist Mimi Webb third. Previous winners include Adele, Years and Years, Michael Kiwanuka, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding and Celeste.
What was the first music you fell in love with?
It was Michael Jackson, when I was a young girl. Then I transitioned towards emo rock music when I was a teenager. I really liked the lyrics – how personal and theatrical and dramatic they are.
Was that the point you established your own musical identity, separate from your parents?
Well, I remember once I tried playing a Panic! At The Disco CD in the car and literally my dad was like, “Turn this off. This is not happening.” After that, I just kind of kept it as a private thing.
When did you decide to become a musician yourself?
It was literally watching Paramore at Reading [festival]. I was 15, right at the barrier and Hayley Williams just looked like she was enjoying herself so much. Then I realised she’s getting paid on top of that! I was like, “I want to do this.” It changed my perspective.
When did you tell your family?
I didn’t want to tell anyone because I felt they’d laugh at me, so it was hard in that respect.
But when I was working at the Co-op as a teenager, and I was bored and doing nothing, the idea of doing music was the only thing that was motivating me.
What did you do at the Co-op?
I was stacking shelves, on the tills, all of it.
Did you ever sneak a few items over the barcode reader for customers who were struggling?
I think I did the opposite, where I scanned things more than once but that was by accident. It wasn’t on purpose. I wasn’t targeting rich people!
