TikTok-viral musician PinkPantheress finally releases the long-teased single, “Where you are,” with WILLOW.
Artist Profile: PinkPantheress
PinkPantheress is a 21-year-old English recording artist. Her catalog has many sounds from bedroom pop, alt-pop, and hyperpop to jungle, 2-step, and dance. Altogether, she develops a catchy Y2K nostalgia aesthetic that TikTok listeners love. This culmination is probably from her diverse list of influential artists like Green Day, Lily Allen, Michael Jackson, Panic! At The Disco, Hayley Williams, Imogen Heap, and Blink-182. She was such a fan that she created a rock band covering My Chemical Romance and similar songs in her teen years.
She started uploading original songs to SoundCloud, where they got inadequate attention. However, when she uploaded one on her TikTok page, she received over 500,000 likes. Then began her slow but indomitable reign. “Just a Waste” and “Pain” (which peaked at number 35 on the UK Singles Chart) went TikTok viral in January 2021. “Break It Off” was the pivotal single that landed her a deal with Parlophone Records and Elektra Records.
In October 2021, she released her debut mixtape “To hell with it,” which peaked at number 20 on the UK Albums Chart. The project featured a mix of previous TikTok viral songs and new material, sonically similar to early 2000s emo music. Off the record, PinkPantheress says her favorite song “will always be the same” — that being “Noticed I cried.” She says, “[…] it was the first song that I didn’t produce. So it was the first moment I let go and put my trust in someone else’s hands.” Oscar Sheller produced the song, which she regards as a “really great person and overall great person.”
“Where you are” by PinkPantheress (featuring WILLOW)
The track is electric with a haunting piano, drum and beat, and whispered vocals. The background vocals build up like ghosts. She sings, “This last year I’ve been through / Several feelings that you didn’t once let me choose / (You turned on me).” Then, WILLOW shines on the chorus, almost shouting compared to the soft-spoken PinkPantheress– it sounds perfect and cathartic. WILLOW follows, “Now my life’s a downward spiral, got my broken heart recy– / You tell me it will be okay, but I know we will never be the same.” The two bounce off each other’s energy to the song’s end, with the guitars fading into a piano, then into nothing.
What do you think of PinkPantheress’s newest single, “Where you are,” with WILLOW? Let us know in the comments!
