London is completely my home.”Īt the beginning of my career, if anyone wanted to ask me anything about sexuality there was no fucking way I was going to speak about it “I would be a completely different artist because my sound is very British – the satire and the cynicism – and I love it here. I can’t imagine what it would have been if I did go to America,” she tells GAY TIMES. After recently playing a handful of shows in the US, the singer-songwriter returned with a renewed gratitude for being a London-based artist. Since then, Latham has been expanding the Baby Kingdom – the name of her fandom – overseas. In the same year, Baby Queen was nominated for the BBC Sound of 2022, competing against breakout talents PinkPantheress, Wet Leg and more. A year after the release of Medicine, the singer wheeled out The Yearbook, a 10-track mixtape which doubled down on the artist’s sharp poetic wit. “I was super, super broke and my whole family thought I’d gone off the rails, but you never get complacent, because it’s all relative.” And trailblazing ahead is exactly what Latham has done. “It has given me a sense of self-respect that I didn’t have for a very long time, especially when I was living in London,” she tells GAY TIMES. Whether label ordained or not, the 24-year-old sticks to her ethos of internet reliability, complete with on-stage quips calling out homophobia, a short tour of her favourite bodily scars and satirical parodies of interviews - a reminder for onlookers not to pile on questions about Jodie Comer, Olivia Rodrigo and Courtney Love.Īs Latham undertakes the next big steps of her career, she reflects on how success has served as a treatment for her personal life. Latham’s TikTok account, the self-crowned “queen of the babies”, boasts a respectable 82,000 (and growing) followers and serves as a charismatic oversharing dumping ground. However, Latham’s transparency isn’t only imbued in her music, but also in her frenetic online presence. So far, it seems, no personal topic is out of bounds of being spun into a witty pop anthem. Debuting as a free-wheeling anti-pop artist, the singer has transformed into a universal mouthpiece vocalising Gen Z’s fraught relationship with online beauty standards, drug addiction and self-worth. The success of the star’s up-close and confessional music has pinned Latham as a voice for the underdog generation. Shortly after signing the dotted line, the singer-songwriter released an eccentric sophistipop EP, Medicine, that marked Latham (and Baby Queen) as names to watch. So, in 2020, when Latham signed to Polydor Records over lockdown, the 24-year-old became a step closer to having her vision realised. I used to make music in school and I’ve been trying to do this since I was 12,” explains Latham, who had longed to escape her hometown. It was a cathartic way of consoling myself if I didn’t like the people I was getting on with or if they were being mean to me. From jotting down lyrics during her shifts at Rough Trade East to fantasising about a Hollywood label deal, the South-African born artist has always been determined to make it big. Music, for Latham, has always been the end game. Even so, on-screen, Latham is readily present as she leans forward, sporting a crocheted chequered pink and black bucket hat and matching acid washed tee, to playfully jibe at her growing to-do list - “I’m a bit screwed until literally November.”
Recovering at home, the singer seems unencumbered by her upcoming career-defining commitments: a pending debut album, touring with pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo, and a confirmed appearance on The Great Escape’s first-ever LGBTQ+ stage. “I’ve been in rehearsals all week and recently given up smoking, so it’s not a good combination,” she laughs.
It’s the eve of her tour, a small stint of UK-only dates, and the singer reveals she has blown out her vocals. It’s early morning in North London and Latham is having an off day.
“Who is Baby Queen? Fuck, that is the question though isn’t it,” Bella Latham, aka Baby Queen, echos over Zoom.