Singer and songwriter Baby Queen moved to London from South Africa at the age of 18 to realize her dream of a career in music, which came to fruition thanks to a deal with Polydor in 2020. She first came to the attention of label A&R Director Ollie Hodge via some early demos that she’d been working on with producer King Ed. Hodge met her for coffee, and she told him it was her ambition to sweep the Grammys. A show in a dive bar that week—the night before the world went into lockdown—sealed the deal. “We loved it,” Hodge remembers. “It was raw, but it seemed obvious she could be so successful with the right platform.”
Baby Queen released her first EP, Medicine, in 2020, which was followed by mixtape The Yearbook in 2021. Earlier this year, Baby Queen’s “Colours of You” was featured in the Netflix series Heartstopper; the song has since amassed nearly 10m streams on Spotify and 31k UGC creations and 189m global views on TikTok. “Even at the beginning, she had these very exciting and clever ideas, including a narrative that extended across her upcoming albums,” notes Hodge. “She’s a great artist to brainstorm with, because she can take the seed of an idea and really run with it.”
Karen Dagg, head of marketing at Polydor, says Baby Queen’s astute lyricism, natural charisma, ability to connect with fans and formidable live presence set her apart from the crowd. “Baby Queen is a really captivating and insightful artist on so many levels,” she adds. Following a busy festival season and supporting Olivia Rodrigo on her European tour, Baby Queen played a sold-out show at London’s Heaven in early November. The appearance followed a sold-out EU tour and dates in the U.S. supporting Conan Gray. Her latest single, “Lazy,” landed in September; a debut album is slated for summer 2023. “She is absolutely committed to a fully global development plan, with next year’s touring and festival plan being shaped to reflect that,” Dagg concludes.
STATS
- 700k+ monthly listeners on Spotify
- Added over 800k followers on social media in the last three months, including 600k on TikTok alone (where she currently has 770k+ followers)
- Played to 250k+ people this year in 20+ countries
- Press coverage has included Metro, NME, The Independent, Evening Standard, Rolling Stone and Clash, with playlist support from Radio 1
TEAM
- Management: Babs Thornton, Everybody’s Management
- Label: Polydor for the U.K. and Interscope for the U.S.
- Live: Will Marshall at Primary Talent for the U.K. and Allyna Sanchez, Shirin Nury and Kasey McKee at CAA for N.A.
- Publishing: Sarah Gabrielli and David Ventura at Sony Music Publishing
