New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Baby
Queen releases her debut EP, Medicine (Wednesday, November 11) via Polydor Records. Made up of six tracks, and produced by King Ed, the EP is available on limited edition coloured vinyl, cassette and digital formats. The anti-pop star is one of the most exciting breakthrough acts of 2020 and the EP is accompanied with the release of new track "Online Dating." Speaking about the song, Bella Latham, the South African-raised, London-living creative dynamo behind Baby Queen, said: "I've only ever used a dating app once. I think it was Bumble and I actually ended up dating the guy for a while so it worked, but I wrote this song when I first downloaded the app and I was having a bit of an identity crisis, like 'am I actually that girl?'. I think the concept of dating online was just really strange to me, but at the same time, it kind of allowed me to hide behind my insecurities. This song is basically just me self-deprecating for 4 minutes. I'm actually a really insecure person and I think all my insecurities surface when I'm romantically involved with somebody or trying to impress them, so I think 'Online Dating' is just a mental conversation I was having with myself at the time in an incredibly apathetic way. The song isn't about the other person at all, it's all about me, and I think the same can be said for the internet."
Baby
Queen has received high acclaim for the captivating run of singles leading up to the EP. American Songwriter recently listed Baby
Queen on their "Five to Discover: Acts You Need To Know" and this summer and fall Uproxx and Billboard included her singles in their "best of the week' lists. Baby
Queen tracks have also found their way onto NPR's New
Music Friday playlists and have drawn comparisons to
Billie Eilish and Lorde. Billboard noted, "as long as she keeps dishing up confections like ... 'Pretty Girl Lie' -- on which she drops the perfectly modern declaration, 'I get more likes when I don't look like me' -- she's going to keep earning that crown" and IndieShuffle declared, "We've all got our guilty pleasures, right? Well, a cheekily-good pop song is mine, and Baby
Queen has got me feasting."
Baby
Queen says of the EP: "A lot of these songs were actually written more recently than the songs I'm releasing in 2021. I don't think I planned for so much of this EP to be focussed on issues surrounding our relationship with the internet, but it just kind of happened that way, which, considering how much time we've spent on the internet this year and during lockdown, is incredibly apt. I haven't been in love for a very long time, so when I was writing these songs, I was writing only about the things I saw happening around me and the way they altered and affected me."
"I think this EP is very observational more than anything else. I felt very strongly that there were certain things I needed to say as an artist, and messages I needed to send, and all of the songs on the 'Medicine' EP serve a purpose and make a point. This EP, in a way, is me getting a whole bunch of stuff off my chest so that I can move forward with creative freedom to explore other ideas and have new conversations with the people who are listening. I try to make sure when I'm writing a song, that I say everything that needs to be said and there's nothing left to say, so I'll never really write the same song twice. I called the EP 'Medicine' because of where I was in my life at the time of writing it. All of the songs talk about my struggle with mental health; 'Buzzkill' being my depression song, and 'Medicine' being my anti-depressant song, and I very much feel that the EP encapsulates an era in my journey towards better understanding myself. It's really crazy to think the first song was released in May this year and now there's an entire EP out. This is a really big moment for me. The 'Medicine' EP is all about honesty. It's my stream of consciousness, and I don't want to hide anything anymore."
The video for "Online Dating," which marks the end of the Medicine EP phase, is directed by Brainwash, who also directed the video for Baby Queen's debut single "Internet Religion." Both songs are about the internet but, in contrast to the first which Baby
Queen filmed alone on Zoom, "Online Dating" sees Baby
Queen joined by her micro army of fans and includes photos, bios and profiles of The Baby Kingdom.
