Rising anti-pop star Baby Queen enlists emerging Australian artist MAY-A for new track ‘American Dream,’ out now and premiered by Zane Lowe as a World First on his Apple Music 1 show. The track follows recent singles ‘Dover Beach,’ which was added to the BBC Radio 1 playlist, and ‘Raw Thoughts’ which was Greg James’ Radio 1 Breakfast Show ‘Tune of the Week’. Already racking up the accolades, Baby Queen was also hailed Radio 1’s Future Artist for March.
Speaking about the track, Baby Queen aka South Africa-born Bella Latham reveals, “This song compares a childlike infatuation with the idea of the American dream, which in hindsight is a bit of a fallacy, but there were people that did get to experience it and reach the prosperity they’d heard about. I’m really into manifestation – not in a spiritual way, just in a very practical sense. I think if you put all your energy into something by talking about it all the time or thinking about it, the course of your life will naturally bend towards that thing. This song is me manifesting my dream to be with a certain person. It’s essentially a song about a childlike crush you are cheeky enough to plan out inside your own head.”
While MAY-A adds, “This song is super fun to be a part of. Bella and I were talking online for a bit about music. I was a big fan of her song ‘Want Me’, so I feel really psyched that she wanted to bring me on to this track. It’s a fun one to sing!”
‘American Dream’ is the latest in a series of songs marking the new musical era of Baby Queen, which started at the top end of 2021 with ‘Raw Thoughts’ and follows the release of her debut Medicine EP in November. Coming almost a year to the day after Baby Queen’s debut release ‘Internet Religion’, its release coincides with the announcement of The Yearbook, a new 10 track mixtape set for release on September 3rd. The experiences that informed the songs on The Yearbook unfolded when Bella moved to London at 18, joined rock bands and fell in love and headfirst into the city’s party scene. They are bittersweet and brilliant. “It’s important to be able to capture a full range of emotion,” she says of the songs on The Yearbook, which include previous releases ‘These Drugs’ and ‘Dover Beach’. “I want the listener to feel like they’re on the top of a London bus, travelling through a city they’ve moved to for the very first time, seeing the world through new eyes.”
The songs are born from personal experiences she has chosen to keep under wraps for years. Taking us as far back as 2018, they’re her most diaristic work to date, chronicling her coming-of-age. “It’s an American coming-of-age film,” she says of the final project’s concept. “It feels confusing, happy, free, lonely… all of these things you go through when you are growing up”
Baby Queen will play her debut headline shows at London’s Omeara on 9th & 10th November 2021. Both shows sold out in just a few days.
Tracklist for The Yearbook is:
- Baby Kingdom
- Raw Thoughts
- You Shaped Hole
- American Dream feat. MAY-A
- Narcissist
- Dover Beach
- Dover Beach Pt. 2
- These Drugs
- Fake Believe
- I’m A Mess