Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe. All my Songs of the Week are featured on my Top of the Poptastic playlist, along with the rest of my faves from the year so far.
Being friends with the younger sister of a semi-famous pop duo isn’t the usual route to fame, but it might just work for Robinson. The singer-songwriter from New Zealand, whose real name is Anna Robinson, was part of a duo with schoolfriend Olivia Nott in her teens – they even auditioned for X Factor NZ. Olivia, who now records as NÏKA, is the younger sister of Caleb and Georgia Nott, aka Broods, whose song Free was one of my faves of 2016. Both Anna and Olivia are now signed up to Broods’ management company, Page 1, and they’re doing a great job of developing them into promising pop artists. Robinson, who is signed to Sony Australia, is definitely the most intriguing of the two for me. I enjoyed her debut Don’t You Forget About Me(co-written with Swede Daniel Ledinsky, whose credits include Tove Lo’s Habits) and loved the follow-up Crave You, but latest release Nothing To Regret is her strongest single yet. With breathy verses and a chanted chorus, it takes clear influence from the sound of fellow Kiwi Lorde, mixed with a Hailee Steinfeld-style pop bop. If her singles continue improving at this rate, I can’t wait to hear the next one.