WHO IS BABY QUEEN?

BY GARY CAMPION

Born Arabella Latham in 1997 this South African London-based singer is professionally as Baby Queen. Born and raised in Durban, South Africa, she moved to London at 18 to pursue a career in music.

Her earliest influences are the artists she grew up listening to, such as Fleetwood Mac and the Beatles. A childhood spent seeking refuge in the songs of Taylor Swift. Growing up in Durban, South Africa, Taylor’s music was a refuge from the conservative community around Baby Queen. It was her mother who suggested she try playing guitar and piano, enlightening her to a life in which she could not only listen to music but make it, subsequent lo-fi demos were recorded and sent to local radio stations. She was so dogged and relentless that, when she asked to move to London and stay with her aunt and uncle, her parents accepted.

She has lived in boats on Regents Canal, gotten messy at raucous house parties, and spent a lot of time looking out into the city with a sense of sharp-edged cynicism. For much of her teenage years and early twenties, she used all of this to write alternative pop songs that transformed her into her genre’s reigning star; a fiery totem for a generation falling out of love with social media, the pressures of adhering to an “ideal” body image, and adult responsibilities.

She joined rock bands and made herself a mainstay presence in all the right music circles when she arrived, dropping demos at the doors of major labels and working in Rough Trade. Eventually, she landed a creative collaborator who believed in her message, King Ed, they still work on everything together today. They made the songs that would put Baby Queen on the map, she was signed to Polydor in 2020.

As a musician she’s entered a new era, having spent the best part of the 2020s taking over London’s anarchic pop scene, she’s leaning into that feral mood to make new art. At the same time, she’s discovering the more grounded and introspective side of herself too, leading to the creation of some of the purest, excellent and affecting music of her life so far.

In November 2021 she launched her own gaming show “Gameplay with Baby Queen” which was broadcast to BBC Sounds focusing on video game soundtracks and features music selected by Latham herself.

Enter Quarter Life Crisis, Baby Queen’s debut album, It’s inspired by her mid-20s; that messy time spent, she says, “halfway between having your shit together and not having your shit together.”

On its 12 tracks, the pop star asks herself the hard questions and gives us her honest answers. On the album, she continues to paint her sonic pictures with a winking, singular combination: production slathered in sunny optimism while delivering the most despondent lyrics imaginable. It’s become her brand, the push-and-pull between bright-eyed adolescence and the angst and exhaustion of contemporary existence. The album’s cover art reflects it, with hand-scrawled drawings of rocket ships and dolls sitting alongside empty wine bottles.

The album’s release follows a rapid ascent in notoriety for Baby Queen. In the early summer of 2022 – just before she joined pop behemoth Olivia Rodrigo on her UK tour – a Netflix show named Heartstopper had an unexpected break-out moment. A queer TV series based on the blossoming relationship between two high school boys in England, it became a global hit. Her single, “Colours of You”, was used to promote the global smash series with a series of videos featuring the cast with Baby Queen which were posted on TikTok. At the time she no idea about the size or the weight of what she was signing up to but it made stars of its cast, and Baby Queen’s fanbase widened, with a new gaggle of queer fans entering her oeuvre. She had fans of the show and now her writing to her to tell her how Colours of You gave them the opportunity to come out to their parents. It was such a deeply felt collaboration that the team behind the show welcomed Baby Queen back for season two. The season’s soundtrack – famously well curated – now features six of her songs, including “All the Things”, a song inspired by the relationship between two of the show’s characters, Tao and Elle.

Her Debut Album Quarter Life Crisis is out Friday 10th November - Reviewed by Gary on page ???

Her Quarter Life Crisis Tour plays The Academy Dublin on Tuesday 21st Nov 2023 tickets from Ticketmaster.ie.