Eli talks like somebody who learnt pop music through YouTube comment sections, reality-television elimination nights, Tumblr-era emotional devastation, and the deeply sacred cultural experience of refreshing Twitter to see if your fave survived another week. If you don’t understand what any of those things are, maybe it’s a sign to start catching up with the world. Stage Girl is one of the greatest albums of 2025. There are so many things that can be said about it, but there is certainly one word for it: magical.
She is a generational voice (and what a voice!) who brings together everything pop culture should be about within her musical craft: incredible songs, a theatrical approach to performance, a fantastic sense of humour, and the feeling that novelty can still be culturally impactful. You can’t escape the spell of songs like Marianne, Girl of Your Dreams, All At Once or God Bless the BFA, which strike that unique balance where the autobiographical and the artistic merge into a distinctive style, in which her mastery of language is one of the cornerstones of her talent. Her most recent single, Feel Your Rain, is simply ‘eargasmic’. It was also the first taste of Stage Girl (Not a Dream Anymore), the deluxe edition of her debut album, and the words in brackets become surprisingly moving when you stop to think about them.
Since releasing her debut album, Eli has rapidly become one of the internet’s most beloved new cult-pop obsessions, while also conquering the critics. The project is a concept album inspired by reality singing competitions, Y2K television aesthetics, theatrical performance, and the fantasy of becoming somebody else through fame. It feels like the result of someone spending twenty years academically studying pop music while simultaneously shitposting through an emotional crisis. Built from massive hooks, diaristic songwriting, chaotic online references, and some of the sharpest pop instincts to emerge online in years, Stage Girl transforms the language of stan culture into something strangely moving and deeply human.
Part of what makes Eli so compelling is how seriously she takes things most people are trained to dismiss. Hannah Montana, TikTok auditions, fedora jokes, Floptropica humour, mall-pop maximalism: in Eli's hands, all of it becomes emotional architecture. Behind the jokes and internet brainrot lies a very clear emotional truth about growing up queer online, about wanting pop music to save you, and about understanding performance itself as both escape and survival.
Now, after a breakout year that has included her One Woman Show residency in Los Angeles, opening for Sam Smith, receiving praise from artists like SZA and Troye Sivan, and touring across the US, she is releasing the deluxe album, including Nobody’s Girl, Glitter, and collaborations with Zara Larsson and Ayleen Valentine. Eli exists in that fascinating space where internet cult favourite and genuine pop star begin collapsing into the same identity.
We speak with her about Stage Girl, musical theatre, transness, reality television, the economics of modern pop stardom, and why she believes she may finally have earned her doctorate in pop music. As a commenter wrote in one of her most recent posts, 'you cannot spell angelic without Eli’.
Hi Eli! It’s so cool talking to you. How are you doing? How was the tour? You have just finished it; have there been any memorable moments that stand out?
It’s lovely to speak with you. Sorry I’m late. To answer your beautiful first question, I now understand how Miley Cyrus felt in the Hannah Montana movie. It’s the putting faces to the streams, likes, comments, and booming merch sales that gets me every time, and helps make the OCD voice in my head that says it’s all fake become dormant.
Feel Your Rain is a fantastic and bold positive soul ballad that reminds me of Mariah Carey, Savage Garden and Britney, all together. But it has your signature sound, and this time some of the strongest vocals we have heard from you. What can you tell us about this song?
You have taste. Perfect references. All love, full tea, no shade. It was born from the music train of Girl of Your Dreams which made Like A Girl which made Glitter which made Feel Your Rain. It feels like another sonic example of my interest in merging both my deep love for horrible radio music and for incredible contemporary classics like Janet, Toni, Britney, Rihanna, Mariah, Brandy, Prince, etc.
Researching for the interview, I found a comment on Reddit referring to Stage Girl as “one of the cleverest, catchiest, and c*ntiest pop albums I can remember”. I totally agree; it’s just so fresh and exciting to listen to. It has been out now for some months, and there has been enough time for feedback and praising reviews. How does it feel now that the album has its own life?
It feels really aligned with how I see the project because Stage Girl was born from my 100000 hours of writing and producing lame floptropica wannabe Phoebe Bridgers songs for years. So, I feel like my confidence comes from great perseverance and follow-through, and the payoff really does feel huge. I can confidently say it will be regarded as a great American pop album in the coming years. And I’m so grateful I worked tirelessly for ten years to get myself to a place for it to flow through me. I realise now I sound like that one interview where Mk.gee started saying he was like a God — truly not my intention. I just feel like after twenty years of studying pop music I have my doctorate or something... but the kids can take it away from you at any second, so the musical learning and unlearning never stops.
You are part of a generation that grew up with musical reality TV and the internet as the main source of inspiration and discovery. Do you remember the moment when you decided to start creating music: the music that feels right for you?
It was a culmination of many years to finally get to a place where the music feels right for me. It was the pipeline from Mariah and Ariana to Imogen Heap, Underscores, and Oklou, to Janet Jackson, to the Dance Monkey song, and then back to the basics that made me start making the music that I now claim.
There’s a clear theatrical element to the album and how you have presented it: the One Woman Show residency in Los Angeles, but also the stage one, two and three videos of your songs Girl of Your Dreams, God Bless the BFA, and Fortunately for U (the Eliza Mann audition is super cool!). Where and when did the idea to start conceptualising the whole project come about?
Probably from endless conversations about the theatrics of pop with my best friend Peculiar Ethan (who wrote the Crush remix for Zara Larsson with me). One time he told me theatre is the future of pop, and I’ve never been a little monster like him so I couldn’t really come to that conclusion on my own. I did see FKA twigs in concert in 2019 and that felt resonant with Ethan’s thesis. I will always be really inspired by the distinct journey Preacher’s Daughter took me on but I will never be that swagged out to make something like that. So my own version became a super cliche admission of like, “Hey, I really, really desperately need to be a pop star because being famous has always seemed like an escape from reality and all the alleged anti-trans stuff.”
It’s very difficult to choose the best song on Stage Girl, but I have to ask you about Marianne, which I find fantastic. Its production is sonically related to a more indie sound (such as The Hidden Cameras, Owen Pallett or Bat for Lashes). What were the main musical influences that have stayed with you for this project? Was it difficult to define the musical direction for Stage Girl?
I wanted Mark Ronson to text me back and to show him I could create songs worthy of playing alongside the greats. It wasn’t because I will always believe letting yourself have no sound is having a sound and setting yourself up better for that natural unfolding / discovery instead of banging your head against that one Rick Rubin book.
The audition as a concept is very much part of the whole universe of Stage Girl and it reflects the enthusiasm and drive of a new artist, but also the struggle. These are not easy times for making money out of music; tours are difficult and can be exhausting. How are you dealing with this part of the industry?
I’m hoping this hail mary of an audition video for Ariana Grande on TikTok pays off, I’ve about expended all my network options and have resorted to screaming at Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers in the desert at Coachella to text Ariana and tell her to listen to Stage Girl. I know it’s wrong. And obnoxious. But it felt excusable because they approached me. Plus, say what you want, the journal of a doll is way bigger than me.
The visual world of Stage Girl is impressive: the videos, the covers, the posters, the website! They recreate moments of Y2K TV and music culture perfectly. How involved are you with this side of your work?
#ItsAllMe #GirlsInSTEM — the website wasn't executed by me; it was just a Poptropica meets Hannah Montana website reference I made and then someone at RCA knocked it out of the park!! I wish I knew who to thank because it’s amazing, but they don’t tell me things like that.
I watched your interview for Chef's Choice, in which you mentioned how the song Girl of Your Dreams is dedicated to your friend Emma, which adds another layer of meaning to the song. I wonder what it has been like to share this experience with your friends.
I really wanted to play the songs live with Emma, but she is on tour with Lorde, valid.
Do you feel like pop references tend not to be taken seriously? I read your bio on Instagram, which is hilarious, and I loved how you mentioned that “Amanda Overmyer was my Janis Joplin, Jessica Sanchez was my Whitney Houston”. But sometimes people and music critics try to diminish these types of artists as if they were not authentic.
It’s lowkey all just misogyny in my opinion.
Just by making the album, you have created joy for so many queer people (me included). What has the reaction from the LGBTQIA+ members of your fanbase been like? The sound, the references, the ad libs! The album feels like a hug, a laugh and an artistic expression. But also, the lyrics: the whole song is such a mirror, and I love 'she's writing on the wall, a journal of a doll' in I Wish I Was a Girl. There is so much power in that image, and I feel like you must have received beautiful reactions to it.
To quote Ayesha, I do it for girls and the gays... that’s it.
You recently opened for Sam Smith; did you get to meet them? Since the album was released you have also received a lot of praise from iconic artists. Have you had the chance to spend time with them or meet them?
Yes, oh my gosh, they were the sweetest. What really gagged me was them saying they love God Bless the BFA like… that deep ass cut.
When it comes to culture: what are the albums, films or books that you love at the moment?
I love the new Muna album and I’m really excited for A-Pop. I haven’t been reading but my girlfriend gave me a book that I keep in my purse.
Now that the tour is over, what is next for Eli?
Many more songs, a lot more auditions and fedoras.
