Raised on the Finnish island of Åland, and now based in Berlin, leoblu is an indie pop artist who creates music that feels at once dark and shadowy and vulnerably candid. Drawing inspiration from the deep waters of the Baltic Sea that surrounds her home archipelago, as well as the seductively urban landscape of her current home, her music moves in dark rhythms like turbulent tides or the movements of night-time strangers through a city at night.
First gaining attention with the EP Eskapism back in 2021, and later when her song ‘Still Dancing’ featured on Turkish Netflix series The Protector, leoblu has garnered international attention, playing shows and festivals in Europe, Asia and both North and South America.
Her latest single ‘cake’, released right at the end of last year, is the perfect introduction for new listeners. A gloomy song that nevertheless maintains a glossy pop sensibility, it finds the narrator returning home for their brother’s funeral and dealing with the first stages of grief and a numb, existential pain. “There’s a hole in the ground that shouldn’t be there,” leoblu sings, “I don’t want to sit and eat cake.” It’s unclear if the events are autobiographical or fiction, but the emotions are so keenly felt that whether these things actually happened seems almost besides the point. This uneasy relationship between stories and reality is something of a signature and adds to the overall sense of volatility. As the press release puts it: “It’s all lies, it’s all truth. It’s leoblu.”