Malaysia / London · indie pop

Chloe Qisha

2 upcoming festivals ↓

Wry, glossy indie-pop — 2026's buzziest new writer-performer, with hooks polished enough for radio and lyrics sharp enough to sting.

Chloe Qisha was born in Malaysia and grew up attending an international school in Kuala Lumpur. At sixteen she moved with her family to England, going on to boarding school before studying Psychology at university and then a Masters in Communication. She began uploading song covers to YouTube during her studies, a starting point before she moved into writing original material and settled in London.

She works in a polished strain of indie pop, pairing conversational, often deadpan lyrics with big, clean choruses. Qisha sings in a clear, unforced register and writes from a first-person, observational angle, treating dating, ambition and self-image with a dry sense of humour. Rather than building a long album catalogue, she has released a run of singles and EPs, describing her own sound at one point as "nostalgic alternative pop."

Her reference points reach back to the disco records her parents played at home, among them ABBA, the Bee Gees, Talking Heads and Tears for Fears, alongside LCD Soundsystem. She counts herself an early fan of Troye Sivan and names Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" as a backbone of her own catalogue, citing Rosalía, Holly Humberstone and Anderson Paak among artists she admires. She was later named to the BBC's Sound of 2026 shortlist.

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indie pop