Artist Profile: Poppy

Moriah Rose Pereira, otherwise known as Poppy, is an American singer-songwriter who started as a YouTuber. She rose quickly into fame because of her strange internet persona. Many of her videos were very random and different which made a lot of people interested in her content.

Most of Poppy’s videos are less or more than a minute long, and most of them are her doing random things in a white backdrop, like her teaching you how to a smile, or her being on the floor, and the list just gets weirder and weirder, and it became viral abnormally fast. She started her channel in 2015, a video of her saying ‘i’m Poppy’ for 10 minutes currently has 26 million views and counting. She was very private about her personal life before she started her youtube channel, when people asked her who she “really was” she always responded with “I’m Poppy” and never gave any further information, even now with her music career she still gives the same answer. Although a lot of people think she’s crazy, or a satanist or part of the Illuminati, she’s a normal person and most of her youtube career was just an act and a way for her to get attention so that when she started her music career, her music would catch the eye of the public, and it worked. Before starting her career she actually practiced dance for 11 years, and vocally trained with her dad, who is a pretty successful drummer, he’s worked with artists like Cyndi Lauper and The Rockettes and he now helps Poppy with  her music. A lot of her internet persona comes from how she felt when she was a teenager. Poppy stated that she often isolated herself and was very quiet due to bullying when she was a kid, and that’s why a lot of her videos don’t have a lot of scenery, the way she talks in her videos also projects from her childhood as she wasn’t very talkative as a child, and the reason she’s alone in most of her videos is that soon after being bullied she enrolled in homeschool and her only ‘friends’ were her stuffed animals and dolls. 

One year after starting her youtube channel Poppy released her debut single “Lowlife”, a pop laid back song, the music video is very similar to her youtube videos, most of her scenes are her in a white backdrop with some furniture around. This song became very successful, it’s currently sitting at 64 million views and counting. However, Poppy’s music genre did evolve and change over the years. Her debut album ‘Am I a Girl?’  is completely different from her debut single and first EP “Bubblebath”, from the color palettes to the album covers and the genre of both albums, everything is very different. The track “X” is a heavy metal song with some pop elements to it, which is very different from her debut single “Lowlife”. The video is completely different as well, instead of her usual white backdrop she has a black backdrop, and is seen with a band. Poppy settles for this genre and style more as it’s often seen in her future projects. Her debut album ‘I Disagree’ carries the same heavy metal sound, however, she likes to change the direction of her songs a lot of the time, for example, the song “Concrete” changes up a lot the times while still having a similar sound every time the genre changes up, However, she has songs like “I Disagree” and “Blood Money” which stick to the heavy metal/rock and songs like “Girls and Bikinis” and  “Immature Couture” which are completely different pop songs yet still fit her. 

Poppy is currently nominated for ‘Best Metal Performance’ at the 2021 Grammys, and also becomes the first female artist to be nominated in that category. Just 5 years ago everyone was taken aback by poppy and her videos but now she’s a successful musician. Some of my favorite tracks by her include “Scary Mask”, “Play Destroy ft. Grimes”, and “I Disagree”. Poppy has a lot of things to come, I hope her future projects continue to be as good as her older ones and I hope she continues to stay as mysterious as ever.