More about: sofy

It’s a Wednesday night and London Bridge venue OMEARA is packed to the rafters. Never ones to disappoint, SOFY and her four-piece live band are known to be quite the party starters, and everyone wants a piece.

Noting her key musical influences as Blur, The Stone Roses, Loyle Carner and Easy Life, SOFY has melded 90s rap with Brit-Pop and hip-hop beats to create something wholly her own. Lyrically, SOFY dishes out wit, sass and relatability, singing about everything from toxic masculinity to navigating crushes in an Arlo Park-esque register.

While SOFY’s recorded tracks carry a lo-fi, bedroom pop feel, on stage, it’s a whole different story. Repping a vintage England football shirt, SOFY kicks off her sold-out headline show with ‘Egomaniac’, one of the singles pre-released from January’s upcoming EP, Bored in Colour (Pt. 2). Immediately, the crowd starts singing along, belting out the chorus along with SOFY as she jumps around.

After a raucous welcome of applause, SOFY dives into ‘Chameleon’, which appears on her first EP, Bored in Colour (Pt. 1). After that, she plays an unreleased track, ‘Fiesta’, which is of course, well received by the crowd, many of whom seem just as starry-eyed as SOFY about seeing her claim OMEARA’s stage.

Keeping the energy up throughout the gig, SOFY chats in between each song, telling stories and joking around. Everyone hollers as the band begins to play Eminem’s ‘My Name Is’, but rather than a cover, SOFY cleverly switches out the original lyrics to introduce each member of her band.

While a number of SOFY’s songs, like ‘Lads! Lads! Lads!’ and are high-energy, sing-a-long rabble-rousers that even get mosh pits going, the artist showcases her artistic versatility and vocal range by including several more sentimental slow jams in the set. Latest release ‘btw’ is a soft, stripped-back single about amicable breakups where you grow apart when life gets in the way. As a testament to the rising star’s magnetism, those tracks held just as much power over the crowd as the knees-up numbers.

"This is an artist who has firmly found her sound and is already building a cult following..."

Having only debuted last year, Leicester-raised SOFY has already had some massive wins. This summer, she played a whole host of festivals - most notably to a huge tent at Glastonbury on the BBC Music Introducing stage - as well as Latitude, Leeds, Boardmasters and Truck. Elsewhere, her track ‘Big Talk’ was added to the FIFA Soundtrack (2023), she performed a BBC Maida Vale session and has seen plays from Mollie King on BBC Radio 1 and Jess Iszatt on BBC Introducing. 

Before launching into ‘Big Talk’, SOFY talks about how much getting the track featured on the FIFA Soundtrack means to her. Growing up, she and her brothers would play the game, and over the years, the iconic soundtrack would introduce her to some of her favourite bands of all time. 

A seemingly faultless set, SOFY and her band made every moment count on the OMEARA stage, coming back out for an encore to play two tracks - the as yet un-released ‘He’s Not Into You’, and fan favourite, sunny day bop, ‘Strawberry Milkshake’.

No Big Talk needed here, this is an artist who has firmly found her sound and is already building a cult following. SOFY’s sold-out headline show at OMEARA was undoubtedly a career-defining moment. I for one, can’t wait to see what happens next.

See the view from the pit, captured by Katie McLellan-Salisbury here:

Grab your copy of the Gigwise print magazine here.

More about: sofy