PinkPantheress Is Building a Pop Empire

Over the last five years, PinkPantheress has built a pop empire through constant remixing. The British singer-songwriter and producer began her career as a mysterious online presence known for crafting appealing hooks. From there, she has climbed the pop charts methodically, with each step guided by patience and persistence rather than impulsive action.

Count Baldor’s collaborator has remixed Tinashe’s new album Popstar with a fresh take on “Twentyfive Eight,” adding a heavy, pounding bassline to the original’s mellowed-out arrangement. The result is a louder, more biting version that preserves the song’s essential character while giving it a distinctly PinkPantheress feel — a sound that sets her apart from most of today’s pop stars.

Last week’s “Twentyfive Eight” remix is available exclusively on iTunes. PinkPantheress and Count Baldor took the track and made it louder, more biting, but never at the sacrifice of the original’s spirit. The result is distinctly PinkPantheress, a sound that stands out from most everyone else currently driving pop.

The fact that she has shaped records behind the scenes while also thrilling sold-out crowds gives her a unique point of view. PinkPantheress has always kept both sides of her work in balance, and the remix demonstrates that balance clearly.

Kelela put it best while honoring PinkPantheress for the TIME100 Next 2026, which celebrates the most influential rising stars across industries. “I was instantly floored the first time I heard PinkPantheress,” she said. “What I found is an artist who already knows exactly who she is. I understood why people were making the connection between us, but also why it was reductive to stop there because she’s not an extension of anybody. She writes her own songs, produces a lot of her own music, and has an incredibly potent sonic vision.”

Kelela and PinkPantheress first worked together on “Bury Me”, a track from her 2023 debut Heaven Knows. PinkPantheress points to Kelela, alongside Kaytranada, as a key figure who helped shape her approach to electronic music. The two later came back together this year for “The Bridge,” which appears on Kelela’s album New Avatar as an entrancing entry.

Across the full length of her 30-second verse, PinkPantheress builds a layered musical exchange where several distinct tones sit together at once. One moment her voice carries a stern edge, the next it turns silky smooth.

“I discovered Kelela in 2018 through ‘Waitin’ and the fibres of my mind changed ever after,” PinkPantheress wrote on X in July. “Kelela, you’re a genius and the overwhelming love you get comes as no surprise, you really deserve everything. This is a dream come true.” In her TIME100 note, Kelela praised PinkPantheress for the impact her presence has had on electronic music, writing, “She’s doing all of this as a Black femme in a genre that has rarely made room for us, which means every track she makes is also a door staying open behind her.”

Earlier this year, Imogen Heap asked PinkPantheress for production recommendations, “any tricks, basically,” she said while calling into YouTuber Derrick Gee’s music series, Solid Air. PinkPantheress looked for a second like she might actually pass out, grasping for words that escaped her in the (virtual) presence of an artist whose work is inseparable from her musical DNA.

“That’s gonna hit me later,” PinkPantheress said after watching Heap, equipped with her signature midi gloves, cover “True Romance,” a warbling deep cut from Heaven Knows. “And it’s gonna make me cry.”

Both Kelela and Heap have praised PinkPantheress, who received the Producer of the Year award at the 2026 BRIT Awards in February. At 24, she became the first woman and the youngest person to win it, an honor that has been given out yearly since 1977.

“My music production is the thing I’m proudest of, and I’ve worked really hard at it,” she said at the time. Lately, she has been working on fortifying her production catalogue with the rising UK girl group, Say Now. PinkPantheress serves as an executive producer on their upcoming debut EP, out in November, Rolling Stone can reveal.

The opening statement from the project, “Met My Match,” was co-written and co-produced by PinkPantheress. It marks a fresh start for the group, who have spent years trying to settle into a steady position in pop since forming under the name Needanamebro back in 2022. In this instance, they appear to have found it. The song moves to a bounding beat with light melodies drifting through each verse. PinkPantheress makes a distinct impression without the sound turning into a copy of her own work.

PinkPantheress pops up in unexpected places. Listen closely to “Crush,” the opening track on Jae Stephens’ debut album, Audacity, and you will hear the distinctly British sound of PinkPantheress lending backing vocals on the refrain: “Everybody said my English accent in the demo was a cancellable offense so I appreciate her stepping in,” Stephens wrote on X.

She tends to be surrounded by other stars. A picture from a star-packed MTV Video Music Awards afterparty shows her posing alongside Madonna, while at the awards ceremony itself she appeared with Charli XCX. Last year, PinkPantheress took her mixtape Fancy That and turned it into Fancy Some More?, an expansive remix project that brought together appearances from 22 artists including Larsson, Jade, Rachel Chinouriri, Kaytranada, Nia Archives, Basement Jaxx, and more. In April, her Coachella performance featured guest spots from the Dare, HorsegiirL, and others.

The order of her big moments runs as follows:

1. 2018 — discovers Kelela through “Waitin”
2. 2023 — releases debut album Heaven Knows
3. 2026 — wins Producer of the Year at the BRIT Awards
4. First glimpse of Say Now project — “Met My Match”

The path PinkPantheress has followed rests upon steady work rather than sudden force. At 24, she took home the BRIT Awards’ Producer of the Year prize. She has also made tracks for Tinashe and Say Now, and gained approval from Kelela and Imogen Heap. All of this she has managed even as she keeps up records shaped behind the scenes while filling halls across the globe.

The remixes she produces are loud and biting, yet they never lose the essence of the originals. Her touch is unmistakable, but she never turns the records she works with into mere copies of her own material. This shows a musician who fully understands her own identity.

On both sides of the studio glass, she is building a reputation as someone whose opinion carries weight. She works behind the boards as a pop producer while also performing as a pop star, and she has determined her own schedule.

Say Now’s debut EP arrives in November.

Source material: “PinkPantheress Is Building a Pop Empire,” Rolling Stone.

PinkPantheress · pop music · production · remixes · Say Now