FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: Chxrry

FEATURE:

Spotlight: Revisited

Chxrry

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THIS is someone…

PHOTO CREDIT: Marvin ‘Tada’ Llantada

that I spotlighted in 2024 when she was known as Chxrry22. Dropping the number at the end I am now exploring the recent work of Chxrry. There is an interview from last year and one from this that I want to cover in this feature. However, I am dropping in this biography. Even if she is referred to as Chxrry22, we do get to discover where this incredible artist came from and how her career progressed:

“Raised in a traditional Ethiopian Christian family in Scarborough, a Toronto suburb, she grew up surrounded by music. Her parents, part of a choir, encouraged her to sing at birthdays, weddings, and family events, fostering her natural stage presence from a young age.

Her music career took off in 2017 when she decided to pursue it seriously. A video of her singing posted on social media went viral, marking the start of her professional journey. She later moved to Atlanta to focus on recording, collaborating with notable producers like Sensei Bruno (known for work with Snoh Aalegra and Kid Cudi) and songwriter Daijah Ross (Baby Rose, Eli Derby).

In 2022, Chxrry22 made history as the first female artist signed to The Weeknd’s XO Records. This milestone highlighted her unique talent and soulful voice, influenced by her Ethiopian roots and Canadian upbringing. Her debut EP, The Other Side, released in September 2022, explores themes of love, heartbreak, introspection, and life’s complexities. The seven-track project includes songs like “Alone,” “Wasteland,” “Do It Again,” “Call Me,” “The Falls,” “Us,” and the title track, blending modern R&B with alternative and folk elements, marked by innovative cadences that set her apart from traditional R&B artists.

Chxrry22 aims to pave the way for women in the music industry, particularly young Black women, by creating a safe space to express emotions freely. Her vulnerable yet empowering style continues to resonate, as seen in her breakout single “The Falls,” which quickly gained traction in the R&B community. Splitting her time between Toronto and Atlanta, she embodies a rich cultural blend that fuels her authentic, introspective music”.

I am moving on to this interview from last year. i-D were on the set of Main Character to speak with Chxrry about this viral song. They were keen to highlight and explore the “brazen, unfiltered visual treatment from fashion’s favorite disruptor, Mowalola—and the result is pure It Girl energy”. It is one of Chxrry’s best songs and one that instantly sticks in the mind:

“Last year was a busy one for Chxrry. She put out some amazing singles, including Main Charcater Enegry. I do wonder what we will get this year. If there will be an E.P. or another album. In terms of albums, her superb debut, The Other Side, came out in 2022. Chxrry followed that with Siren a year later. Surely she is thinking about a think album and what that will contain. Thedre is this growing and loving fanbase. I say this about any intertnationmal artist, but I do hope that Chxrry comes to the U.K. at some point to play here. It would be amazing to see her on the stage.

“On set for her breakout video “Main Character,” Chxrry isn’t just starring, she’s commanding. The viral single has already soundtracked thousands of TikToks and is quickly becoming a Gen-Z anthem. Now, the visual moment is in the hands of Mowalola Ogunlesi—designer, creative powerhouse, and after this, first-time music video director. “I feel like I’m a bit mentally ill, but sassy, funny, sexy,” Chxrry says, perched between takes. “I had to go to somebody who I knew understood that. Me and Mowa, we just get it. I don’t have to explain anything.”

For Chxrry, the first female artist signed to XO Records, this is a pivotal moment in a breakout year. She’s toured globally with The Weeknd, appeared onstage with Rema and Mariah The Scientist, and earned praise from Billboard, ESSENCE, and Rolling Stone. With her debut album on the way, this video feels less like a career milestone and more like a cultural one. “This one had to be daring and empowering,” she says. “And working with Mowa… it just made sense.”

Mowalola, who blurred the lines between runway and performance art with her Dirty Pop show last year, where she debuted original music live on stage, isn’t just designing fashion anymore. She’s building immersive worlds. “I realized music is literally the most important thing to me,” she says. “I grew up with MTV—Missy Elliott, Aaliyah, everyone. Now I’ve figured out how to combine my love of creating with my love of music.”

And although she’s not a director by trade, she’s clearly a natural. “I’m actually not a director, but I could be a director’s director,” she says. “I just know what to do.” Shot over 24 hours in the heat and haze of Vegas, the video is all instinct and synergy. No pitch deck. No lengthy treatment. Just trust. “We’re like tools for each other,” Mowalola says. “We just work. It’s natural.” “Mowa saw me at a party and said I looked like a vixen,” Chxrry adds. “She was tapping into the shit I really like.”

The result? A world that feels hyperreal and hyperpersonal with fashion as storytelling. “People don’t realize how important clothes are,” says Chxrry. “Each one of us played our role so well that this video is going to be amazing. We supported each other.”

This isn’t a vanity piece. It’s a legacy builder. “I really hope ‘Main Character’ is something people can reference 10 years from now,” Chxrry says. “Even if everyone doesn’t get it right away, the fact that Mowa and the team understood it. That meant everything to me.”

As for whether this is a one-off or the beginning of something deeper? They’re not giving too much away. “Wait and see,” Chxrry says, grinning. “You guys are not ready”.

The second interview that I am including answers some questions from earlier. In terms of Chxrry working on a new album. I am not sure of the exact date, though this is something that will come about soon enough. Also, she recently performed in London to close her European tour. She is going to be busy with tour dates very soon. It does appear that she is an extraordinary live performer. Chxrry loved playing in London and she received an incredible response. The Culture Crypt spoke with Chxrry in January. Someone who, they say, always has main character energy, she is also ready to take the centre stage. I think that this year is going to be a massive one for her:

“Starting the year on the road makes it clear she's not easing in. "I love it. It's definitely draining but I'm a fun person so I make everything fun," she says. Still, opening for friends, like UK girl group FLO or The Weeknd and now Mariah, makes touring that much more bearable. The added incentive? "There's always someone to hang out with. Doing that by myself, I'd probably be like, 'I'm so over this. I'm bored.'"

Opening a show often means performing to a crowd already half-checked out. Not if Chxrry's on the bill. Videos from her performances have been circulating online, showing brazen mic stand slams, a hair-whipping floor show and a sustained, show-stopping note during her 'revamped' take of fan-fave "Favorite Girl".

With the overwhelming response that has garnered, she's acutely aware of the responsibility she holds as an opener, both to the artist but more so, the virtual and real audiences: "They expect me to come out swinging and now I've created this fucking insane standard… I have to continue."

Her relationship with the internet, where much of her visibility was built, is much more complicated. "Yeah, I don't know if I'm very good at the internet. I'm a very unfiltered person in real life so I try to do less, especially on Twitter. They don't always get me on that app," she says. "But the internet's an amazing tool. It's the reason I'm even here, it's the reason that people know me."

Particularly online, music creation and marketing have collapsed into each other in increasingly elaborate ways. You could be forgiven for mistakenly thinking that albums are merely a collection of songs. Now, albums arrive as 'eras': musical monuments erected by the artist signifying tightly coded worlds of sound, style, colour and language.

The Taylor Swift formula, if followed correctly, ensures that each release introduces a new aesthetic, marking a distinct moment in the artist's career and then programming a clear and lasting association between the look, the album and a specific album in their discography. A haircut, palette or silhouette becomes shorthand for a particular moment, embedding the music into memory through image as much as sound. Ask Chxrry whether each of her albums offers her the same chance at reinvention and she doesn't hesitate: "An album definitely helps. The minute I start making a project, I start building a world sonically and visually." The instinct for total immersion came with her 2023 album, Siren, when you could say, she went 'method' with her music: "When I did Siren, I wore long black pointy nails and my hair really long. I always wore black and I made sure everything felt creepy and eerie and mysterious and sexual and sensual. I really commit."

Meeting Chxrry, the image and the reality blend into one. She is who she says she is: ardent and aspiring but not in the rigid, resolution-making sense. "I'm a pretty ambitious person. I feel like every day is like a new year," she says. She cares about her music and her audience just as much as her look and her characters. The upkeep of her universe demands full commitment and no in-betweens.

With an album on the way, "a tour, maybe some festivals and collaboration," opening up for others has opened up a world of possibilities. Until then, she loves the British accent, the fact that there has been tea "everywhere" on the UK dates and… "Oh my God, where are those cookies you gave us? Those biscuits with the chocolate?".

I am going to leave things there. If you are unfamiliar with her music and you are unsure whether to dip your toes in, I can thoroughly recommend Chxrry. The wonderful Canadian artist is on this upward trajectory. Someone who will take to headline stages and release many huge albums. With more work coming soon, it is a perfect time to connect with her. Go and follow an artist with…