Bambie Thug: “Music can move people and remind them that their voices are important”

Bambie Thug is somebody different now. They’re still as chameleonic as ever, with a wardrobe full of witchy outfits, but while their essence has been preserved, their soul has been altered.

Maybe this was always going to happen. The whiplash-inducing experience of going from club shows to being a face on millions of TVs across Europe during last year’s Eurovision Song Contest can’t leave the wires in your brain unscrambled. That’s without the added complexities of increased recognition, the inevitable yet unfortunate influx of hate comments, or, in Bambie’s case, right-wing commentators playing the tired trick of labelling them a Satanist. In fairness, they replied that it was “iconic” to be “pissing off the right type of people”.

“It does feel like a million years ago,” Bambie considers, speaking to K! just a few weeks before the first anniversary of their Eurovision turn, where they finished sixth. “I’m quite grateful for the rush to have slowed down now, because there was a time where I couldn’t even unlock my phone because it was causing me mad anxiety. It really does do something weird to your head. But I’m still grateful for all of it.”

A wry smile.

“I’m ready for the Eurovision crowd to find their new obsession for this year so they can leave me alone!”

The silver lining is that Bambie is better at enjoying quietness nowadays. Maybe this was necessary, after the high-velocity year that was 2024. They’ve been taking more time to rest, even though they’re still being creative.

“I have harder skin but now I’m softer on myself, which is beautiful,” they say. “I’ve overcome the imposter syndrome that came with the burnout and the PTSD from the past year. I feel like, ‘Actually, I’m good at what I do.’ I’m enjoying that.”

At this point, they notice the clock in the room reads 2:22. If you’re spiritually inclined in the way Bambie is, you will know this number is powerful, a confirmation that you’re on the right track. Even when they realise the clock is actually a few minutes fast, it’s moot – such a thing could only happen during an audience with Bambie Thug.

With that in mind, talk turns to what intentions they set at the top of 2025.

“To start creating the project, find myself a good deal and a solid team outside of the solid team I already have and dedicate more time to that, but in a balanced way,” they say. “We’ll put a few songs out probably this year, but I’m not putting myself under huge amounts of stress or pressure. I’m still a human, not a machine, of course, and I want to deliver the best project I can. I’m also giving myself grace and compassion with all of that.

“I wanted to play some sick festivals – I didn’t think we’d be playing Glastonbury, but we’re playing it. We’re playing 2000trees, and we’re playing Lowlands [in the Netherlands], which Chappell Roan is playing. I’m super-excited about that. I want to play solid shows without overloading myself. Next year, with everything coming out, I’m going to be back in mental mode.”

All in all, Bambie is learning to ride the waves, through periods of both intense activity and downtime. Once, they’d interpret silence as an uncomfortable warning sign, a premonition of things drying up and never restarting.

“I found myself thinking, ‘This means it’s not going well,’” they reveal. “But now I’m like, ‘No, chill out!’ I want to make sure that I’m ready, physically and spiritually, for the art. If I want people to receive amazing art, I need the space and time to put into it.”

‘Síocháin’ is the Irish word for peace. It is also the namesake of a playlist that Bambie Thug has – 4 Síocháin to give its exact title – compiling their favourite protest songs. There’s Rage Against The Machine on there, Beastie Boys, Bob Dylan, Tracy Chapman. Soon, they’ll have their own song to add, and if you catch them opening for BABYMETAL at The O2 in London at the end of May, you’ll get to hear it.

Imagine if Rage’s incendiary Killing In The Name was written in 2025. That’s REDRUM RAVE. Its snarling riffs prickle with the defiant energy of nu-metal as the witch lets the floodgates to their anger burst open, screaming in its chorus in what could equally be terror or unalloyed fury. ‘All quiet on the Western front / Doomscroll on your screens while they load the guns,’ they rap in its second verse, before suggesting with a wink and a nudge it’s time to ‘arm the gays’.

REDRUM RAVE is a song for the moment, and was unsurprisingly, written fairly recently. It was concocted while Bambie was writing in Los Angeles with Shaun Lopez of ††† (Crosses) – and they even got to record it with the same microphone Beastie Boys used to record Sabotage.

“It was a really old Sony karaoke mic,” Bambie remembers. “I was just happy to get a really good heavy song out of [that session]. I think it’s the first time in ages I’ve been really proud of what I’ve written, which is nice.”

It’s no surprise they had a protest song burning inside of them. During their Apex Stage set at Download last year, they covered The Cranberries’ Zombie in front of a parade of flags of communities across the world facing crisis – Ukraine, the Congo, the trans community and Palestine, to name a few examples. Just weeks before the set, they ended their star-making Eurovision performance with a cry of, “Love will triumph over hate.”

It’s equally unsurprising that the moment for their own protest song has come now, in a year where it’s been all too easy to submerge oneself in rancid news.

“Our rights are being completely shot at, and also the state of the world is swinging the wrong way, but the pendulum has to swing back,” Bambie says. “I don’t want to say that it’s too late, but if people don’t fight for others, even with the trans stuff [referencing the UK Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the legal definition of a woman, and the threat it poses to trans rights], they come for everyone. It was the same in World War II. It started with trans people and the gay community. It started small.”

As they speak, the worry becomes increasingly evident on their face.

“The only thing I can offer you is music and some semi-wise words,” they add. “I have faith in humanity, or at least sections of it. At the same time, I think music can move people and remind people that their voices are important.”

In the not-too-distant future, they’ll have even more music to offer, as their debut project is in the works.

“REDRUM RAVE is probably the heaviest song that I have so far, but I have another song about dysphoria which is kind of heavy, too,” Bambie teases. “But we are also going for gothic Britney in some of the songs! There’s a bit of Massive Attack in there as well. I’m experimenting with sounds. I think they’re all going to be slightly alt. for now, but there’s a few of them that are a lot more pop leaning, while obviously still retaining the Bambie Thug essence.”

Before all that, though, there’s the small matter of hitting the road in Europe later this month, ultimately landing at The O2 in London.

There’s something inspired about the idea of Bambie Thug, Poppy and BABYMETAL on such a huge bill. All of them are known for their larger-than-life theatrics, their oftentimes mischievous playing with genres, and a blatant refusal to be pigeon-holed. And, at last, we get an arena package consisting entirely of femme people – still uncommon enough in clubs, and vanishingly rare at the top of the pile.

When Bambie is asked what they believe binds them all, the answer comes to them easily.

“Playfulness. Quirky, weird, alt. Poppy came out with the ‘I’m Poppy’ thing online and it was weird and demonic, and she was like a crossover artist. BABYMETAL are really theatrical and I love that. They’re powerhouses.”

These three artists are explorers. With all of them, they’ve made clear that they can and will do anything and everything they want. “The definition of an artist is exploring,” Bambie nods. “There’s so many different lanes you can go in. I respect when people don’t put themselves into a box.”

As for what we can expect from their stage show this time around, it remains something of a mystery. Chances are, though, there will be dancing, and there will be lots of screaming, too.

“It’s all my heavy music, because obviously I curate to whatever crowd we’re playing. There’ll be a lot of screaming. I’m going to be dead after all the shows, because it’s just scream, scream, scream. My dancers and I have upscaled a few of the routines and it’s very much go, go, go, go the entire time. I’m gonna give you a big roar!”

The added joy of it is they get all the space they want, which smaller stages – funnily enough, the ones Bambie finds more daunting – don’t allow for.

“I’m actually like, ‘How am I going to run around?’ It’s all choreographed, I’m not doing that much running around,” they joke. “I’m greedy! I want the space. And I love people. I love going down and touching hands, all of the high-fives. I love getting little bracelets off them. I love squirting them with water guns, which I’m probably not going to be able to do from the stage. But I do like the fact that there’s screens. I love being on a screen.”

As ever, it all comes back to their thankfulness to the universe.

“I’m just grateful to be having bigger stages and bigger crowds, and to be given the opportunity to play for more people. I’m going to make new fans. That’s awesome.”

Bambie Thug plays The O2 with BABYMETAL and Poppy on May 30. This feature originally appeared in the summer 2025 issue of Kerrang!.

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