Child Queen is aware of a factor or two about enormous, generational anthems. On the finish of 2021, she launched “Wannabe,” a snarling slacker banger that sees the 25-year-old unite “stoners, junkies and loners” whereas sticking her center finger up at bullies, folks “who assume it is odd that I kiss ladies” and the strain to skip dinner to look thinner. In the meantime, the self-empowering rage of “No person Actually Cares” has her asking, “What number of elements of your identification are you squashing down simply to toe the societal line?”
This yr, she’s already toured with Gen-Z icon Olivia Rodrigo, and now she’s supporting Conan Grey on his “Superache” headline run. She additionally wrote “Colors Of You” for the soundtrack of queer teen romcom Heartstopper, and he or she not too long ago launched “LAZY.”
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Described by Child Queen (born Bella Latham) as “a formational tune” within the creation of her upcoming debut album, she calls it “a generational slacker anthem” and the non secular follow-up to “Wannabe” as she twists destructive stereotypes into spiky weapons of positivity.
“It’s self-deprecating, however it’s additionally about being assured and proud,” Latham tells AP from an condo in Los Angeles every week after her debut American headline present in New York. “I’d describe this upcoming album as taking a look at what it means to reside as a member of Gen Z, and with ‘LAZY,’ I believe all of us really feel like we’re not doing sufficient. ‘LAZY’ is a vital a part of what it feels wish to be younger and present on this planet at present.”
“LAZY” isn’t the primary tune taken from Child Queen’s as-of-yet unannounced debut album, however the tune is “a vital second for me.” It’s the final monitor she’ll launch this yr, and it’s “important in beginning to unfold the sound and power of the document.”
Latham moved to London on the age of 18, leaving her household and her native South Africa behind within the pursuit of pop stardom. She tried her hand at music school, however her ADHD had her written off by impatient academics as a distraction, and he or she quickly dropped out and centered on sending demo tapes to as many document labels as she may as a substitute. Her first supervisor inspired her to repeat the model and sound of already established artists, which triggered an identification disaster and a reliance on alcohol earlier than Latham was signed to main label Polydor. There, she was inspired to be herself, and with 2020’s debut EP Drugs and her 2021 Yearbook mixtape, Child Queen got here into her personal.
Nonetheless, these early years left Latham “so cynical and feeling prefer it was me towards the world. I used to be watching the best way the world was altering, seeing these influencers and the best way significance was connected to the best way folks seemed or who they knew. It simply pissed me off, so loads of these songs are written from a spot of ‘fuck you all.’”
She admits she launched just a few of these early songs earlier than she “had a chicken’s eye view of what was occurring. There are selections I made that have been mistaken, however now, having lived it for thus lengthy, I actually perceive the aim of what I’m doing, what my position is as an artist and the way that position is perhaps totally different to different artists.
“In case you can perceive what you imply to a bunch of individuals, you may actually do justice to the entire thing,” she continues. “I lastly get it. It’s taken me some time to grasp, however it is sensible now. There’s no guessing or fearing. For the primary time, I really feel very positive of what I’m doing.”
Whereas that mixtape mirrored “introspection and ache,” Child Queen says her “brash, rocky and psychedelic debut album is unquestionably extra assured” than what’s come earlier than. “It’s lyrically formidable,” she provides. “I didn’t write any songs that anybody else may sing. I am self-deprecative, however in a humorous method versus the place you genuinely hate your self. I really feel like I’ve gotten happier, braver and extra assured in what I am doing.”
That confidence comes from time and expertise, positive, however earlier this yr Child Queen launched “Colors Of You,” taken from the soundtrack to Netflix’s Heartstopper. The present rapidly turned a phenomenon with its concentrate on queer pleasure and coming-of-age romance, whereas Child Queen’s lush, stunning and celebratory “Colors Of You” turned a Delight anthem.
“I had a totally totally different profession earlier than that tune,” she explains. “There’s this fixed concern with younger artists since you’re attempting to face out from so many individuals. I truly wrote a letter to creator Alice Oseman and government producer Patrick Walters saying how, after Heartstopper, I really feel like I can lastly breathe. I can simply make my music and be proud as a result of I’m not afraid of failing anymore. It was utterly life-changing.”
Latham says she had no thought how huge the present would get when she first acquired concerned and had much more uncertainty over the response to “Colors Of You”: “From the primary day it got here out, although, it was two months of not realizing what the fuck was occurring.”
“For therefore many children, that present was in all probability the very first thing that felt like a really accepting house. I’m so blissful as a result of rising up, none of us had something within the mainstream that was as inclusive or made us really feel like we’re not mistaken,” Latham explains. Her reveals are an extension of that.
Earlier than the joy round “Colors Of You” had an opportunity to die down, Child Queen was off on tour with Rodrigo across the U.Ok. and Europe. “I’d by no means been in entrance of so many individuals earlier than,” Latham says. “It’s unusual how rapidly you get used to it, although. That complete tour was an unimaginable expertise, however it was much more troublesome than I believed it might be. You understand what it takes. You may’t simply fuck round.”
Latham got here away from the tour “extra formidable than earlier than, simply because your mind has been opened to what’s on the market and what’s potential. On the identical time, although, as stunning and wonderful as that have was, I’d relatively be taking part in my very own present to twenty individuals who know each lyric. It simply evokes you to make your personal present higher and develop it as a lot as potential.”
Child Queen has made a reputation for herself with outsider anthems about not becoming in. Following the successes of the previous yr, although, “It feels extra like ‘we’ as a substitute of ‘I’ now. It’s undoubtedly not me towards the world in the identical method it was once,” she explains. “I did not have entry to the group that I’ve now.”
“Child Queen is the liberty to exist,” Latham says when AP asks her about what she desires to characterize as an artist. “I’m continually asking myself how I may be braver. The extra trustworthy I may be in my music, the extra folks can see that and really feel prefer it’s OK to be whoever they’re. Child Queen is that this invitation to actually be genuine to your self.”
“A number of it’s underdog anthems,” she admits. “Anybody who looks like they do not belong someplace can really feel like they belong right here.
