News

Zolita’s Sultry New EP “Sappho” Is Set to Go Viral

Iconic lesbian viral video solo artist Zolita released her sophomore EP “Sappho” May 18th. You can listen on Spotify here, or stream it on your favorite platform. Zolita’s visually rich, electropop music videos have over 20 million views on YouTube. Her songs are big, audacious femme4femme flirts, love songs, and feminist anthems. She’s inspired by contemporary R&B and pop artists like Kelela, Kehlani and The Weeknd, and you can really hear it on singles like “New You.”

“Thematically my biggest inspiration will always be the girl I’m dating or dated! For this EP specifically, I wanted to make sure all of the songs felt unapologetically queer and didn’t shy away from using female pronouns. I wanted to make sure each song had a different specific story someone could relate to,” she said.

She’s been working on this album since 2015. She self-directs all of her videos and has a unique, independent take on her art. Sometimes good things take time, and in the years intervening between her first EP, she’s developed a new relationship to solo artistry. She says, “So many songs were written and cut in between then and now, but I didn’t feel solid in the sonic direction I was going until I met Paige Duddy (of XYLO) and Lee Newell, my biggest collaborators on this EP. I was so used to writing alone & scared of co-writes before I started working with them, but working with them really opened up my world and I love the dynamic we all have together.”

The music is best absorbed with her videos, where the visual aesthetic is lush and detailed. Her new single “Come Home With Me” is styled as a modern interpretation of sapphic renaissance paintings. How does she develop her elaborate looks?

“I’ve been working closely with my incredible friends/stylists extraodinaires Zac Weiss and Jarrett Edward since my first video “Explosion.” They know me so well and I’ll give them a few references and they’ll take it to a level I couldn’t even dream of. For my video for “New You,” I told them I wanted 90s Thierry Mugler and they showed up with hand bedazzled black lingerie and studded gloves with giant feathers popping out! They go above and beyond and I can’t wait to see what they’ll do with even bigger budgets.”

Zolita’s work has been granted a lot of feminist cred. Pop Dust said “it explores the sheer capability of feminism and solidarity.” Zolita often writes about repression and sexual expression, but more explicit feminist themes come out in “Holy,” which has a sort of Handmaid’s Tale story going on, and “Fight Like a Girl,” which is about the sort of broad, inclusive push for a mass feminist movement we saw with the 2016 Women’s Marches worldwide.

I asked her what we can learn from our feminist foremothers, and Zolita’s answer was spot-on. “I think it’s so important to honor how actively our foremothers fought to get us to where we are today. I think we can learn activist-work-ethic from them. We can learn not to take the rights we have now for granted.” She was also quick to correct the erasure of diverse experiences and backgrounds from the popular portrait of mainstream feminism. “We can learn the importance of intersectionality. Women of color have been instrumental in the feminist movement since day one and the exclusion of WOC in first and second and even third wave feminist movements was a huge mistake we should all learn from.”

 

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button