Like the name suggests, King Princess (AKA Mikaela Straus) makes music that plays with gender and artfully subverts the status quo of mainstream pop. In February the 19-year-old genderqueer singer/songwriter and producer dropped her debut single â1950,â a song inspired by the lesbian love story in Patricia Highsmithâs 1952 novel The Price of Salt (which was recently adapted with the film Carol). âQueer love was only able to exist privately for a long time, expressed in society through coded art forms,â Straus explained to The Line of Best Fit. âI wrote this song as a story of unrequited love in my own life, doing my best to acknowledge and pay homage to that part of history.â
With more than 108 million Spotify streams, â1950â is one of the biggest pop hits of the year, and for good reasonâitâs an update on the old-school torch song, and finds Straus (who played every instrument on the track herself) struggling like a levee to hold back her surging desire and devotion. âIâll wait for you, Iâll pray/I will keep on waiting for your love,â she sings in the chorus over patient finger-snaps, swoony backing vocals, and crackling, synth-heavy production, her voice fluttering over the last word like even the thought of reciprocation is about to make her melt.
Straus released her debut EP Make My Bed in June, and between her falsetto delivery of the bedroom jam âHolyâ and the combustible catharsis of âTaliaâ (a heartbroken sequel to â1950â), itâs proof that the greatness of her breakthrough single wasnât an isolated incident. Within King Princessâ domain (which she rules âwith the velvet tongueâ), queer romance is the norm; she recently told Them that âitâs very difficult [to be] stuck in, like, a vortex of straight shit.â Make My Bed escapes that hetero vortex with songs that are catchy (and gay) as hell. Straus has sold out nearly every show on her current tour, including tonightâs stop at the Doug Fir, which is a fraction the size of the venues sheâll probably play on future visits.