Baby Queen – aka Bella Latham – kicks off 2021 with the release of her new single, the stirring synth-pop anthem “Raw Thoughts.” 

Of the track Bella says: “‘Raw Thoughts’ is probably the most important song I’ve released to date because it’s actually the song that catalysed what has become the sound of Baby Queen. I wrote it near the beginning of 2018 (earlier than any Baby Queen song that has been, or most likely ever will be released) and it sort of came to me like a gift from heaven. I had been on one of the biggest nights out of my entire life and had woken up dreadfully hungover. I think up until that very point in my life, I didn’t know what partying was. I was incredibly innocent and naïve, and this was the moment everything changed for me. I had been going through a terrible breakup, and discovering partying was like discovering freedom. I was going to places my ex had never been, I was meeting people they would never meet and doing things that would make their skin crawl. I think I fell in love with the danger of it. I had realized that I could do or be whoever I wanted to be, even though the only thing I wanted was to be loved by them again. The song came out like word vomit the next day. I was partly thrilled, partly coming down and partly ashamed of myself for what felt like a betrayal of innocence. ‘Raw Thoughts’ is an amalgamation of every feeling. It’s euphoria bleeding into my deep sadness. It sounds like the moment everything changes, because without my knowing it at the time, it was. This song felt like the only way to start 2021.”

A modern pop creative livewire, the South African-born, London based Baby Queen had a breakthrough 2020 and her prolific output culminated in the dazzling Medicine EP in November. “Raw Thoughts” taps into a different side of Baby Queen’s character. Where the Medicine EP was more observational, this is fiercely honest and unavoidably direct. The song has come a long way since the Garageband demo that Bella sent to her producer King Ed on a Soundcloud link, but its original essence remains in what has blossomed into a pulsating pop banger. “It feels kind of magical that both the writing and releasing of this song have been the beginnings of two separate journeys,” says Bella. “‘Raw Thoughts’ is Baby Queen.”