Ari Abdul

The very first time she ever tried writing a song, Ari Abdul came up with a track that quickly went viral and catapulted her into global fame. Since the 2022 release of "BABYDOLL" – a now gold-certified single that also marked her first attempt at singing — the New York City-bred singer/songwriter has built an explosive career that's included taking the stage at major festivals like Lollapalooza and headlining tours all over the world, thanks to feverish demand from her diehard legion of fans. With her self-titled debut project, Abdul now shares a body of work that brings even greater power to her gorgeous collision of darkly charged alt-pop, beat-heavy industrial, and sublimely ethereal shoegaze.

Made in close collaboration with Stint (a Grammy-nominated producer/songwriter known for his work with HEALTH, Demi Lovato, Gallant, and more) and rising singer/songwriter Ella Boh, Ari Abdul finds the 23-year-old artist embracing a whole new level of emotionality in her music. "For most of my life I've had a hard time expressing my feelings, to the point where it was physically painful," she says. "When I first started going into writing sessions, I held myself back from opening up — but then I found the people I love working with, and now there's no limits." Not only a major creative breakthrough, the project reveals Abdul's profound growth as a vocalist. "I really learned how to sing in the process of making this project," she says. "There's so many things my voice can do that I never thought I was capable of, whether it's belting or hitting certain high notes, and that's been a huge part of my journey as an artist."

One of the most captivating moments on Ari Abdul, a distortion-drenched yet dreamlike track called "LEAVE ME HERE" helped set the tone for the project's unrestrained outpouring. "That song came from being completely honest about childhood trauma and abandonment issues, and singing it felt like something deep in my soul was being freed," says Abdul. "When I scream my lungs out at the bridge, it's a real scream. It felt uncomfortable at first, but afterward I just wanted to keep being as vulnerable as possible throughout the project." On "No Fair," Ella Boh joins in for an intimate portrait of infatuation (a narrative inspired by their own relationship), amping up the song's moody urgency with gauzy guitar tones, gritty beats, and the duo's wildly hypnotic vocal interplay. And on "Change," Abdul channels the intense inner conflict that comes with growing and evolving, brilliantly echoing that tension in the track's frenetic back-and-forth between potent hip-hop rhythms and brooding post-grunge riffs.

Mostly raised in South Brooklyn, Abdul partly credits her eclectic sensibilities to her musical upbringing, including the Latin pop played at home by her Ecuador-born mother, the classic rock favored by her father (a Costa Rica native of Palestinian descent), and her older brothers' affinity for hip-hop, metal, and alt-rock. After finishing high school, she enrolled in a local college where she crossed paths with an aspiring producer named Thomas LaRosa, then forged a fast friendship based on their shared love of what she refers to as "Tumblr-era alternative" (i.e., The Neighbourhood, Arctic Monkeys, The 1975). When LaRosa landed an internship at a local studio, Abdul went to visit him one afternoon and ended up recording "BABYDOLL" on a whim. "I always thought my voice was too deep and no one would ever want to hear me sing, but that day we just went for it," she recalls. Later that year, Abdul posted the song on TikTok and became an overnight sensation, eventually signing with Slumbo Labs/RCA Records and making Fallen Angel (a 2022 EP named for her favorite Wong Kar-wai movie).

Now based in Los Angeles, Abdul released her 2023 EP CCTV on the heels of her first tour — a self-driven headline run including sold-out shows throughout the UK, Europe, and Canada and at iconic U.S. venues like Brooklyn's Baby's All Right. The following year, she hit the road for a North American co-headline tour with labelmate Isabel LaRosa (also a longtime friend and Thomas' younger sister), then headed back to Europe/the UK for another headline trek before playing a series of sold-out headline shows in China in summer 2024. With her latest live experience including a North American outing with singer/songwriter Nessa Barrett, Abdul is now gearing up for a fast-selling fall 2025 headline U.S. tour, where she'll take the stage at some of her biggest venues to date.

A born performer known for her unbridled live show, Abdul lives for the unsurpassed joy of connecting with her fans up-close. "It always blows my mind when people tell me that my music's saved them in some way, because that's how I feel about the music I love," she says. "I just want to keep making songs that resonate with everyone, and hopefully help them find community with each other." And in reflecting on the transformation, she experienced in creating her debut project, Abdul hopes that her newfound sense of courage might help others find catharsis. "For a long time I had this idea that if I was vulnerable with people, it would somehow make me weak," she says. "Making this project taught me so much about being open, and it's healed so many wounds for me. Now the goal is to keep being more raw and real and human in my music, because I think we need more humanity right now."