BEABADOOBEE

signing to a record label on your 18th birthday might sound like something from a Star Is Born-esque film script – but that’s what happened to Bea Kristi, better known by her stage name Beabadoobee.

Following a string of EPS, in October the 20-year-old released her debut album, Fake It Flowers, to critical acclaim for her dreamy, ‘super nostalgic’ alternative pop.

But 2020 was a weird year to release an album. ‘A lot of shit happened,’ Bea tells Grazia. ‘Everything was cancelled; my tour was cancelled. And my album was released. It has been pretty wild, in the good and bad way. But I think it’s important to focus on the positives.’

Releasing her first album at the age of 20, you might expect Bea grew up with hopes of becoming a full-time musician. But the singer hasn’t always wanted to be on stage. ‘It’s really strange, honestly, I didn’t expect any of this to happen,’ she says candidly. ‘Despite how shit I did in school, my dream was to become a nursery teacher. That was kind of my goal in life.’

Bea has previously said her main inspiration to make music was hearing the soundtrack to the 2007 coming-of-age film

Juno, packed full of indie rock from the 2000s (many of the songs were by Kimya Dawson and her bands Antsy Pants and The Moldy Peaches). Bea wrote her first song , Coffee, when she was 17, after her dad bought her a second-hand guitar. Not anticipating her success, she uploaded the track under the moniker Beabadoobee

– the name of her private Instagram account. When the song started racking up views on Youtube, she caught the attention of Dirty Hit, the independent record label responsible for Wolf Alice and The 1975.

Fast-forward three years, and Coffee went viral again, this time on Tiktok when it was sampled by the Canadian musician and producer Powfu on his track Death Bed (Coffee For Your Head). (It’s reported the track gained over 4.1 billion plays in March 2020 alone.) But Bea’s already made a huge impact outside the confines of the app. She was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2020 BRITS and, at the NME Awards, was awarded the Radar Award. While she’s incredibly grateful for the accolade, she tells Grazia she found the whole thing a bit surreal. ‘A lot of things were happening a bit too quickly,’ she says. ‘It kind of overtook the feeling of happiness. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on – I don’t know anything about the music industry.’

Bea supported label mates The 1975 on their last UK arena tour and, before coronavirus, was set to hit the road with them in America. Along with the group’s frontman Matty Healy, who told Radio 1 Bea is the person he’s ‘most excited about in music’, she also has high-profile fans in the form of Harry Styles, Khalid and Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus (she wrote 2019 song I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus about him). But a standout moment was when Taylor Swift praised her at the NME Awards. ‘I was like, “What the hell, this is so wild,”’ she says. ‘I remember being seven and vibing to her first album. She’s such an empowering female in the industry.’

Now, Bea wants to be that inspiration to others, too: ‘As someone who grew up without having anyone who looked like them in the music industry to look up to, we need to encourage girls to be creative and be whatever the fuck they want.’