SINGAPORE - Filipino-born British singer-songwriter Beabadoobee found fame with the first song she wrote three years ago, a breezy acoustic tune titled Coffee that has since racked up over 50 million plays on Spotify.
The song blew up even more when Canadian rapper Powfu included it in his track, Death Bed (Coffee For Your Head), which was released this year and went viral on TikTok. It topped the music charts in several countries, including Singapore.
Here are five things to know about 20-year-old Beabadoobee, whose real name is Bea Kristi and who recently released her debut album Fake It Flowers.
1. A lot of her music is written in her small bedroom
"It's all done in this space," she tells the South-east Asian media in a Zoom conference from her bedroom.
She lives in Harrow, a town in London, with her parents and younger brother. The family moved from the Philippines to Britain when Kristi was three.
"It's like the smelliest, messiest space ever," she says of her bedroom. "And somehow the music comes from it, so that's cool."
Her early music was often tagged as "bedroom pop", the term given to home-recorded music often marked by minimal and raw production, as well as lo-fi aesthetics.
2. Her music is described as a Gen Z's take on 90s alternative music
Asked about the music that inspired the songs on Fake It Flowers, the singer rattles off a list of alternative rock acts from the 1990s - The Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine, Veruca Salt, The Cardigans, Juliana Hatfield and more.
"I'd always put on Siamese Dream (1993) by The Smashing Pumpkins or Eight Arms To Hold You (1997) by Veruca Salt, and just dance," she recalls.
"And it does something to the endorphins, it makes you feel confident, even though I can't dance for s***. And I want Fake It Flowers to be that album for anyone."
3. She feels overwhelmed by her success
"I've always grown up with not a lot of attention," she says. "No one really gave a s*** about me when I was a teenager.
"So it's crazy that somehow, my music relates to a lot of people, especially people around the world. It's just crazy."
4. She thinks it is okay to be loud and annoying
The songs on Fake It Flowers carry the message that women can be anything they want to be.
"I feel there's a lot of like internalised misogyny and we live in a very misogynistic world," she says. "And I feel like, I get perceptions of myself as like a young Asian woman - I have to act a certain way, that I can't be loud or annoying or sarcastic and be myself."
"I wanted to make an album for girls to listen to you and be like, 'yeah, okay, I'm going to whine, I'm going to be annoying, I'm going to be a b****'."
5. Her dream is to perform in Asia
If not for travel restrictions and social distancing, the singer would be gigging around Asia now. She plans to do a tour of the region as soon the pandemic is under control and global travel resumes.
"It's like my dream place. It also feels like home to me, because I'm from the Philippines and I'd be even closer to home. I'm going to go whether you like it or not, I'm going to see you guys."
