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PinkPantheress
PinkPantheress in 2023
Name
Victoria Beverley Walker
Born
18 April 2001 (age 23)
Bath, Somerset, England
Occupation
Singer • songwriter • producer
Years active
2019 – present
Genres
Pop • bedroom pop • alt-pop • 2-step • alternative R&B • drum and bass • UK garage
Instruments
Vocals • guitar
PinkPantheress (formerly known as Vbw, born 18 April 2001) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. Born in Bath, Somerset to an English father and a Kenyan mother and raised in Canterbury, Kent she started writing original songs at the age of 17 and began to upload them to SoundCloud. Her songs, which are frequently short in length and include samples of music from the 1990s and 2000s, span a number of genres, including bedroom pop, drum and bass, alt-pop, and 2-step garage. She has amassed millions of followers and attracted critics alike, with The New York Times somewhat praising her for utilizing the social media app TikTok to propel her nostalgic and melodramatic music forward.[1]
Early life[]
PinkPantheress was born on April 18, 2001 in Bath, Somerset, to Stephen G. Walker who works as a statistics professor and is based in the United States, and a Kenyan mother who works as a carer.[2][3] She also has an older brother who works as a sound engineer.[2]
When she was 5 years old, PinkPantheress and her family moved from Bath to Canterbury, where she was raised and grew up. When she was 12 years old, her father relocated to the United States to start working at The University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas, while she and her mother decided to stay in England because of her wanting to remain in the environment that she was used to.[2][4][5] PinkPantheress began working at many jobs, including Marks & Spencer, Claire’s, and a Co-op supermarket at 13 to 14 years old.[6] She also worked at a cricket ground as her first job.[4]
As a child, PinkPantheress took piano lessons and when she was 12 years old, she entered a school talent show in which she sang the song “Stand by Me” by Ben E. King.[7] During her early teenage years, she fronted a rock band that covered songs by My Chemical Romance, Paramore, and Green Day, in which she was the lead singer and performed with them for the first time at a school fête.[3][1] She attended and studied at University of the Arts London until 2022, when she dropped out and did not re-enroll.[8]
Career[]
2019-2021: Career beginnings and to hell with it[]
PinkPantheress in 2021.
PinkPantheress started to write music during high school for four years to help out a friend before she eventually began to write music on her own.[9] She started using GarageBand to produce instrumentals for her friend MaZz when she was 17 years old, and she later used GarageBand to record many of her early songs lying down in her university hall at night.[10][11] She began uploading original songs to SoundCloud, where they received lackluster attention. She was soon inspired to upload her music to TikTok after seeing Lil Nas X’s music go viral on the platform.[7] PinkPantheress uploaded her first TikTok under her stage name after a TikTok she posted on her personal account received over 500,000 likes. The TikTok contained a snippet of her song “Just a waste” and soon went viral on the platform.[12][13]
In April of 2021, PinkPantheress was signed to Parlophone while in early 2021, her songs “Pain” and “Break it off” went viral on TikTok, with the former charting at and peaking at number 35 in August of that year. She was later featured on GoldLink’s song “Evian” from his album HARAM! and was later signed to Elektra in June of the same year.[14][15][16] In August of 2021, she released the song “Just for me” after a snippet of the song gained noticeable attention on TikTok. A music video for the song was released alongside its audio as well.[17] On the UK Singles Chart, “Just for me” debuted at number 27, making the song her highest entry on that specific chart at the time.[18][19] PinkPantheress announced the release of her debut mixtape to hell with it and simultaneously revealed its title on October 1, 2021.[20] The mixtape was then officially released on October 15, 2021 through Parlophone and Elektra Records and debuted at number 20 on the UK Albums Chart.[20][21]The mixtape was preceded by “Pain”, “Break it off”, and “Just for me” as singles, as well as “Passion”, released in February of 2021, and “I must apologise”, which was released in October of 2021.[22][23] PinkPantheress officially performed live for the first time in London in October and November of 2021.[24][25]
2022: Sound of 2022 and Take me home[]
PinkPantheress in 2022.
In January of 2022, PinkPantheress was announced as the winner of the BBC’s Sound of 2022 poll after she was chosen from over 130 artists.[26][27] After winning, PinkPantheress responded with:
“Thank you so much! I’m honestly gassed, my dad’s going to be so happy! This is kind of the reason I do music – it’s for other people as well as myself. It’s a great feeling and it genuinely does keep me going.”
– PinkPantheress via BBC.[27]
She then released a remix album for to hell with it in that same month.[28][29] At the 42nd Brit Awards, she was nominated for the Brit Award for Song of the Year for “Obsessed with You” by Central Cee which sampled “Just for me” and gave a virtual performance on Roblox for the Brit Awards.[30][31][32] PinkPantheress appeared on the song “bbycakes” with Mura Masa, Lil Uzi Vert, and Shygirl in Febuary of 2022, and in April of 2022, she released the song “Where you are”, featuring American singer-songwriter and actress WILLOW.
PinkPantheress embarked on a European tour in support of to hell with it in April of 2022, and later embarked on the PinkAcrossAmerica Tour in support of the mixtape as well the following month.[33][34] She also performed as an opening act alongside beabadoobee on the American leg of Halsey’s Love and Power Tour.[35] In June of 2022, PinkPantheress cancelled her scheduled appearance at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona due to hearing loss, which, in an article with BBC published in March of 2023, she said “happened gradually”.[36] Prior to the publication of the article, in October of 2022, she uploaded a short video to TikTok explaining that years exposure to loud music had left her 80% deaf in her right ear.[37] PinkPantheress was featured on a song titled “tinkerbell is overrated” by beabadoobee from the latter’s second studio album Beatopia, released in July of 2022. The following month, PinkPantheress released the song “Picture in my mind” with Sam Gellaitry.
Throughout summer and autumn of 2022, she appeared and performed at numerous music festivals, including Lollapalooza, Leeds, Primavera Sound, and Austin City Limits.[38] In November of 2022, PinkPantheress released the singles “Do you miss me?” and “Boy’s a liar”, respectively, from her debut extended play Take me home, which was surprised released on December 16, 2022 with no prior announcement nor indication.
2023-present: Heaven knows[]
PinkPantheress in 2023.
In January of 2023, she was featured on the song Way Back alongside Skrillex and Trippie Redd from Skrillex’s third studio album Don’t Get Too Close, which was released the following month. PinkPantheress surprised released a remix of “Boy’s a liar” with American rapper Ice Spice titled “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” on February 3, 2023.[39] It subsequently became the lead single to PinkPantheress’s then-untitled debut studio album. The remix immediately went viral on TikTok and debuted at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, which marked her debut on the chart, later peaking at number 3.[40] It also peaked at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart, where it became her highest-charting single, and was nominated for two awards at the BET Awards 2023.[36][41][42]
On May 29, 2023, PinkPantheress teased her debut studio album and posted a short video to TikTok containing a snippet of an unreleased song with the captions “not one rhythm missed yet in this asdas car park – cant wait to share more snippets !! #love sample from ku lo sa – oxlade” and “ALBUM SEASON IS UPON US”.[43][44] The next day, she was announced as part of the lineup for the Greta Gerwig-directed 2023 film Barbie.[45][46] “Angel”, her addition to the soundtrack for Barbie, was released as a single in June of 2023.[47] The following month, she took to Twitter to announce the release of her previously unreleased song “Turn Your Phone Off” with Destroy Lonely, which was officially released on July 14, 2023.[48] On 28 September she announced on Twitter that the previously teased “Mosquito” would be released as the first official and second single of her then untitled debut studio album.[49] The song was then released on 29 September.[50] The third single, “Capable of love”, was released on 12 October in tandem with the announcement of her debut studio album Heaven knows and its release date of 10 November.[51]
Artistry[]
Influences[]
Lily Allen in 2018.
PinkPantheress has cited multiple times that when she was growing up, she listened to Lily Allen, who became a huge influence on her and her music.[52][53] She has also listed numerous artists and bands such as My Chemical Romance, Just Jack, Michael Jackson,[54][55] KAYTRANADA,[36] Imogen Heap, and Frank Ocean,[12] as inspirations, also citing K-pop songs, blink-182, Good Charlotte, Green Day, early Panic! at the Disco, Linkin Park, and Frou Frou as inspirations for her melodies and beat choices. She has called Hayley Williams a “big influence” on her as a performer and said that she first wanted to become a professional musician when she was 14 years old after seeing Williams perform as part of Paramore during Reading Festival and that she is “doing music because of [Williams]”.[8] She has also stated that she was inspired by an interview with Doja Cat to pursue music as a career, and was inspired to post her music onto TikTok by Lil Nas X.[7] Along with this, some of her favourite K-pop groups include SHINee, f(x), Red Velvet and EXO.[4]
Musical style[]
PinkPantheress’s music has been described by many music outlets, music reviewers, and music publications as pop,[56] bedroom pop,[22] dance,[23] alt-pop,[57][58] drum and bass,[59] 2-step,[60] jungle, and hyperpop,[8] and often uses samples of other songs, such as dance music from the 1990s and 2000s and jungle, funk, UK garage, and pop songs. PinkPantheress uses topline writing to write her songs, which are frequently self-produced and short in length. She has described her own music as alt-pop and “a form of D’n’B that’s acceptable to listen to at home”, and has stated that she writes “sadder”, “dark” lyrics to “appeal to the youth”, often to contrast them with her “happy instrumentals”. PinkPantheress has said that her lyrics are usually not based on personal experiences, stating, “A lot of it just comes because I really like storytelling.”
Discography[]
Main article: PinkPantheress/Discography
Albums[]
Mixtapes[]
Before PinkPantheress[]
Tours[]
Trivia[]
- Her stage name comes from one of her favourite films, The Pink Panther.[61]
- Her favourite band is My Chemical Romance.[62]
- PinkPantheress has revealed that all of her life, she’s struggled with body dysmorphia.[63]
- Once she hitchhiked in Buffalo, NY.[64]
- Her NCT bias is Haechan whilst her favourite song is Superhuman.[65]