Clairo for Monday lunch – from her gig at Lollapalooza, Chicago on August 4, 2025.
I confess to not being a huge fan of Clairo. 99% of the reason is a very thin and weak voice – so weak, in fact, that the Sound Engineers had a hard time mixing her forward without drowning her out by the band. I will say I AM a big fan of her backup band. Tight, slick, polished and a pleasure to listen to. So big thumbs up for her band – on the fence about her.
But Clairo is a major name these days – the face of Indiepop, and that took some work. So give her credit for that. She’s also been doing it since she was thirteen. I respect artists who work their asses off to get where they’re going – and Clairo has mine. She’s just not the one I instantly think of when I want to pop on a slab of vinyl and get distracted.
All that said, Clairo first drew wide attention in late 2017 when the video for her song “Pretty Girl” became a viral video on YouTube. The song was recorded for an indie rock compilation benefiting the Transgender Law Center. According to her, she recorded the track “using the resources around me which were pretty s_. I used like a little keyboard that I had and I was really into ’80s pop music–my mom is obsessed with it–so it kind of inspired me to do something like that.” She attributes audience interest in the video to YouTube’s algorithm system. Her music was put into the growing genre of bedroom pop. Her videos became popular on vaporwave-centric Facebook groups.
Another video, “Flaming Hot Cheetos”, garnered 3 million views by July 2018.
The success of “Pretty Girl” led to interest from major labels such as Capitol, RCA, and Columbia. Her father knew Jon Cohen, the co-founder of The Fader, and he facilitated a recording contract for Clairo, who was signed to Fader Label and was introduced to Pat Corcoran, manager of Chance the Rapper. She became a client of talent agency Haight Brand near the end of 2017. Clairo acknowledged her social privilege via her father’s industry connections. Rule of thumb: if ya got connections, use ’em – everybody else would do the same with half a chance.
In May 2018, the Fader Label released Clairo’s debut record, titled Diary 001. In her review for Pitchfork, Fader contributor Sasha Geffen wrote that the EP ought to subside the “legions of naysayers who dismissed her as a one-hit fluke or an industry plant.” Joe Coscarelli of The New York Times said that the EP “bridges both worlds, building on the coy, understated bedroom pop of ‘Pretty Girl’ and ‘Flaming Hot Cheetos’ toward sturdier numbers like ‘4EVER’ and ‘B.O.M.D.'” Also in May 2018, Clairo announced a headlining tour in North America, as well as select dates as the opening act for Dua Lipa. Her July 2018 performance at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City was a sold-out show. In August 2018, she performed at Lollapalooza. She performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2019.
Okay – thanks to Wikipedia for the bio help (too much work and not enough me to go around).
Dive in.
