Bonnaroo 2024 Artist Spotlight: Baby Queen

Like we’ve been doing for many years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorite acts from Bonnaroo‘s 2024 lineup. After roaring back to life in 2022, after two years off due to Covid and weather, and feeling fully like its old self again with a great fest last summer, this year marks Bonnaroo’s 21st installment (and 23rd anniversary), boasting not only another great and varied lineup, but also a continuation of some of the big changes and improvements rolled out over the last couple of years, with more flexibility in ticketing and camping, a reimagined “Outeroo” campground area, new activations, and further new ways to Roo. Back once again in its usual June 13-16 timeframe, we’re counting down the days until another great weekend on the farm.

As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages, big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, and most highly-recommended among this year’s crop of artists. And as our time at ‘Roo approaches, we’ll also be bringing you some special features and full list-style daily lineup guides, to help you plan your weekend ahead of the fest. While these previews won’t span every artist, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend at the fest!

Grab your tickets right here if you haven’t already, and read on for our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight!

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London based, South African raised singer-songwriter Arabella Latham began writing music at just 11 years old, penning dozens of tracks throughout her teens, influenced in her youth by artists like Taylor Swift, Fleetwood Mac, and Lady Gaga. It was upon moving to London at 18, however, hoping to make a career out of music, expanding her taste to include more alternative and modern pop like The 1975, Billie Eilish, and St. Vincent, as well as ’90s grunge and alt rock, and descending into the city’s nightlife scene, that her musical alter-ego Baby Queen was born. Eventually inking a deal with Polydor (after five years of hard work and honing her craft in the city) and formally debuting the project with single “Internet Religion” in 2020, her debut EP, Medicine, arrived that fall, amidst the Covid lockdown, featuring further buzzy early singles like “Buzzkill,” “Want Me,” and “Pretty Girl Lie.” Adopting a heart-on-her-sleeve honesty and penning confessional songs about heartbreak, mental health, substance abuse, and navigating her own sexuality, Baby Queen’s off-kilter, edgy pop (which she sometimes refers to anti-pop) has only become more refined over the few years since. Though her early output was written just before the pandemic, while working odd jobs in London, a subsequent crop of singles were penned remotely while stuck at home, with tracks like “Dover Beach,” “You Shaped Hole,” and “Raw Thoughts” drumming up further buzz online ahead of her 2021 mixtape, The Yearbook. Viral attention on TikTok would follow, as well as placements on Netflix show Heartstopper and in video games like EA Sports FC, 핑카지노, and The Sims, ahead of her 2023 debut full-length, Quarter Life Crisis– an elevation of Latham’s artsy, cinematic, and hypnotizing alt-pop sound and frank and uncompromising lyrical vulnerability, spawning singles like “We Can Be Anything,” “Quarter Life Crisis,” and “I Can’t Get My Shit Together.” Based on how good Baby Queen is, and how catchy and refreshing and uncompromising her songs are, it’s a bit surprising that Baby Queen isn’t a bigger deal yet, but if you want to be ahead of the curve, get out early and watch her kick off Bonnaroo’s second day on This Tent!

WATCH | “We Can Be Anything” (Official Video)