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‘I would love to not be underrated’: pop experimentalist Empress Of on vulnerability, fame and fun


The musician Loreley Rodriguez gained a cult following for songs about heartbreak and anxiety – now her new album pays tribute to pleasure. She talks about her pop inspirations, social media and enjoying her ‘single era’

A Los Angeles native, she’s in London for a week of press, with starry trappings: a show at the Jazz Cafe; an appearance on Radio 1; dinner with friend and fellow pop star Rina Sawayama at a Mayfair restaurant, where she was stunned to find the chicken priced at £140. Asked about the possibility of internet super-sleuths teasing out his identity, she is unbothered: “I don’t care, whatever.” After that opening shot comes a series of pulsating house and dance tracks, half in Spanish, all of which are odes to sex, flings, and chaotic nights. Igshaan Adams’s golden Prayer Clouds glitter across the walls, looking fragile as glass; Rodriguez is mesmerised by a quilt from Loretta Pettway, swathed in shades of blue.

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