INTERVIEW: Rising baroque pop star Mollie Elizabeth: "It just feels that's what I was put on this earth to do, to make people feel seen and help people feel more comfortable
Interview: Shalane Connors
Published: 20 July 2026
Originating from the Pacific Southwest in the US, rising young star Mollie Elizabeth is one of the most captivating new voices in pop music.
Still only 21, Elizabeth creates whimsical, left of centre baroque pop with a depth and maturity beyond her years. It blends traditional pop sounds with elements of musical theatre, jazz and even lullabies and is truly mesmerising, with a soundscape that, as Elizabeth says, is too broad and involving to just limit yourself to listening.
“To me, every melody is a tiny world that invites you in—an invitation to be both fierce and delicate, and to celebrate who you are, who you have been, and who you are becoming,” Elizabeth says. “My music isn’t just for listening—it’s for wandering, for imagining, and for finding a piece of yourself in a place you’d forgotten.”
In January last year Elizabeth released her first single ‘Vegas Venetian’, quite possibly the smoothest, most languid kiss off to relationships in pop: ‘Boys are so fine til they start feeling / It’s over and done before my heart starts beating’. Later the same year she dropped her debut EP Dirty Blonde, featuring six tracks that range from bebop., traditional pop and guitar acoustic. Highlights include the delightfully retro ‘Dinner For One’ that celebrates the single life and loving yourself first and foremost - ‘Got his hopes sky high / I let him down because I'm alone but I'm never lonely…I'm focused on my one and only / So I'm having dinner for one’ - and the twinkling, 1970s vibing pop of ‘Doe Eyes’ which see’s Elizabeth mourning the end of a summer relationship: ‘our fling has flung’.
In May, Elizabeth released the new single ‘Run Rabbit’, which has become her biggest hit to date. Riffing on the classic song ‘Run, Rabbit,Run’, the track has a whimsical playful sound, with a stomping chorus and left-right-march feel to its verses. Elizabeth’s soaring vocals and the jaunty beat disguises a song of immense pain as she sings about growing up in an abusive and traumatic household. ‘I never knew another way of life / My baby brain collected all the strife,’ she sings, with the almost angelic middle eight being perhaps the most heartbreaking: ‘What does not kill you / Never repairs / What does not kill you / Gives you never-ending nightmares.’
"‘Run Rabbit’, while a very whimsical song, is actually a darker look into what it was like growing up in an unhealthy household,” Elizabeth says. '“There’s an indescribable feeling that comes along with the baggage of an imperfect childhood, one that begs the question, if you are excused for your immoral coping mechanisms because of your circumstance, or if it is your fault regardless."
‘Run Rabbit’ achieved over four million views on TikTok before it was even officially released, and in the week of its eventual release it became the fastest streaming new song in the world. To date, it has racked up over 19 million streams on Spotify alone, and over 27 million views on TikTok.
Elizabeth is one of the best kind of musicians to wrap your ears around - the music she creates is exciting, intriguing and innovative and as she herself says, is an experience that brings you more than just listening pleasure. It does what all great music does: takes you on a journey, provokes thought and introduces you to a soundscape that is increasingly rare in modern pop.
Shalane Connors for Women In Pop recently sat down with Elizabeth to chat more about her career, her music and the creation of ‘Run Rabbit’.
Hi Mollie! It’s so good to chat to you today. I’ve heard you have recently moved to Los Angeles, is that because of your music taking off so incredibly fast?
Yeah, so I just recently moved six months ago now, I'm officially an LA girl. Okay. We've been loving it. I moved with my boyfriend and my dog Billie Holiday, and we've been having a really nice time. When we decided to move down here, my music wasn't really moving as much as it is now, it’s just because everyone that I work with is here. Although it's really nice that the flight from LA to [my home] Washington is only two hours, financially it just didn't make sense for me to keep going back and forth. It might made more sense to move down here, so I did the big brave thing, and I did it!
I imagine though it's quite a lot to be in that environment. Do you feel pressure being in LA?
It's so inspiring in so many ways because everything is so fast paced here, where everything was so much slower in the Pacific Northwest, and there's pros and cons to both of those. I think it's really inspiring to be here, where everyone has got places to be and things to do, but other times I'm like, ‘oh my gosh, everyone has places to be and things to do, why aren't we all just having a lazy Sunday?’ It kind of seems like lazy days don't really exist in LA, and that feels a little bit stressful. But at the same time, how exciting for a young woman who is ready to go make a bunch of art, there are just infinite opportunities at all times.
As a girl who grew up in the woodlands, where you had a lot more quiet and peace, do you find it overwhelming, and how are you coping with that?
Yeah, I definitely do. I'm so used to the sounds waking me up in the middle of the night coming from birds or squirrels, but now it's people and it's really loud cars zooming down the street and it's sirens, and it's very overwhelming. We have a couple of trees right outside our big window in our apartment, and that helps me a lot. I get to see the squirrels and the hummingbirds and that feels like home and I get to wake up and the birds are still singing - it's just a lot more people. People are loud! Oh my gosh, people are so loud at all times, and it's like, ‘guys, like you know, we could have some quiet time. It's really good for you!’
Do you thrive in that environment, or are you someone who feels like they need a bit of peace and quiet in order to create and write music?
I think it's a bit of both. I feel the most at peace, and I feel the most myself when I'm able to really just take a step back and really enter my mind palace without so much stimulation happening in front of me. At the same time, it's also invigorating. I've never really lived in a city before, so it's cool to be able to look at lots of people. I like people watching.
Your latest single, "Run Rabbit’ has only been out for a couple of months and it's already clocked up a whopping 18 million streams or so, it's gone absolutely gangbusters. Obviously no one expects something to go this big, but how has that felt? Is that absolutely surreal?
It is absolutely surreal. I's just been such a whirlwind, and I think more than anything, in a weird way, I'm really grateful for social media for once in my life because I’ve been able to see how my audience has been using ‘Run Rabbit’ in the content they're making. It really paints a much fuller picture for me than just seeing a number go up and up on my screen of how many streams there are. There's been so many animations and drawings and OCs and Redditors and editors and everything in between, and they're so talented. It's definitely one of those numbers where I can't imagine what that even looks like, that many people. So it definitely feels very surreal, but I couldn't be more grateful.
That must feel like such an incredible gift to be having that conversation and your art being mirrored back to you in all these different ways. I saw this beautiful video that you just posted where you're absolutely bawling your eyes out, and what you was so lovely. You said it's so scary to put your safe space out there, but maybe it could be a safe space for others too. It's my safe space, and you guys are welcome. I just thought that was so beautiful, and really speaks to your putting your personal self out there through your music. Is that safe space something you're feeling more and more comfortable with as you sit in this newfound era?
It definitely is a validation like no other, especially to have the creative community on social media find solace within your music. Especially with a song like ‘Run Rabbit’, where I was nervous to put it out. I was like, ‘This is kind of out there as far as music goes, I love it, but you never know about people’. It's definitely become easier now that I've received so many wonderful messages, especially from young women, opening up about how my music has has helped them and and how they feel really seen.
There's such a large part of me that just feels that's what I was put on this earth to do, to make people feel seen and help people feel more comfortable with the art that I make. At the same time, music used to be just mine, and that was my safe space and I didn't really post it. I do think it's important to continue to have a safe space that is just personal that I don't share online. So that's the power struggle I'm having right now, music used to be my ultra private safe space and now it is my ultra public safe space for everyone to join. So that's been tricky.
For you, growing up, you said at times you felt like an outcast and a weirdo. Was music an escape for you? What was your relationship to music in your formative years?
I think music was just a way that I processed the world around me. The first song I remember writing, I don't even know how old I was, but I was learning how to tie my shoes, and I wrote a song about it. Then I learned about recycling, so I wrote a song about learning how to recycle. It was just something that I always did. It has always been a safe space for me because I think that there's such a a beauty in taking things that you don't understand, like how to tie your shoes, or things that feel really heavy, like oh my gosh, I have this crush on this boy and he doesn't like me, and turning it into music. It takes the weight off, it takes the heaviness off, and it turns it into something that you can sing and you can be dramatic about, and you can dance too. I feel like that has genuinely shaped my life and the way that I live it.
Your journey with social media is a really interesting one. During covid you got into makeup tutorials and then it transitioned to music. At what point did that happen?
Yeah, well gosh, I fell into a really deep depression during covid. I actually I had really bad agoraphobia, where I couldn't leave my house without having a panic attack. It was really bad for a long time, I'm good now, I did the exposure therapy and everything, but one of the things that really helped me with my anxiety and what I was going through during covid was doing these crazy makeup tutorials. It was something I did not expect anyone to watch, and I grew a fairly large audience watching me put fairy wings on my face and stuff, I've been singing and songwriting my whole life, and it just occurred to me at one point, I guess I'll try posting my music. I remember the first song that I posted on TikTok, I can't remember what it was called, but I was so nervous. It was just this little song I wrote on my ukulele, I was so embarrassed, but it was very well received. I think it got like 100,000 views or something, and people were really nice in the comments, and I think that's where it kind of clicked, maybe I’m not too bad at this. I had played my songs for my family, but it was never something that I was like, oh yeah, I'm a musician. I was just like I'm some sad teenager who writes songs in her room! Oh my gosh, what a flashback! Makeup tutorials…wow!
You found your champions in people just giving you that immediate feedback and it went really gangbusters for you, just off your own bat which is amazing. But after ‘Vegas Venetian’ did well you signed to a label. Talk to me about the difference between doing it all yourself and having a team involved.
It definitely took my music to a whole different level once I was able to work with a producer. I'm not the most instrumentally capable. I can play the ukulele, but I can only play it left-handed and I'm right-handed! I was watching off of an iPod when I was younger, and I just copied what they did. I'm not left-handed, but I taught myself to play that way, and I've kind of hit a roadblock of how far I can get with being good at it, and I'm okay with that. I can admit that I am a singer and I'm a songwriter, and I'm not the best instrumentalist. So working with my now producer Josh Murty has been amazing. He's so talented at piano, guitar, and drums, and all these different things. Being able to work with someone who just asks you ‘what kind of sound you want me to make right now’, and you can just tell him whatever is going on in your head, and he'll do it, exactly how I wanted it to sound. It puts a really huge, fast track on things
And obviously I’m much more polished now, using an actual microphone and being in an actual studio! I used to record off of this like $15 mic and I had a tiny MIDI keyboard. Before that I just used the keys on my computer to play the piano on ‘Vegas Venetian’. So it's definitely way slicker, and it's so inspiring because it's so much easier to get ideas down now rather than it just being me, myself, and I.
I want to dive deeper into your sound in terms of being asked, ‘What do you want to sound like?’ What was your answer to that initially?
I grew up listening to a lot of older music like Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, the classics. I vividly remember hearing a Rosemary Clooney song on the radio when I was really young, and just thinking that's what singing is supposed to sound like, and that's what I want to sound like when I sing. That was around the time when I was teaching myself how to sing, and how I got pretty good at doing vibrato and and those older techniques used in music.
I still listen to that music to this day. I think that there's just such a romance to that style of singing, but at the same time it's so theatrical, and you can see it as an influence for so many modern artists. Amy Winehouse took her inspiration from 50s and 60s music, and I know Lana Del Rey does too. I just think it's really amazing to take inspiration from something from the past and and bring it to today. I hope that people can hear me doing that. Whenever I make music, it doesn't sound like music to me when I listen back to my own songs, because it's just like, ‘oh here I am yapping again over a bunch of sounds’! I hate the sound of my own voice, but people seem to like it, so that's great. I love doing it, I love singing. It's just the listening back to it where I'm like, oh, how can you guys handle it?!
Are you connecting with your audiences just through online platforms, or are you going out and doing shows?
I’ve done a couple of tiny, tiny little live shows back when I was in Washington, but I'm trying to gear up to do more live performances here in LA. That's really my one spot where I'm the least experienced in, performing live. Before I came to LA, I had never sung or played the ukulele standing up because I was always just in my bedroom. I was always just sat in bed making music, and apparently it's very different when you stand up! it's like, oh, my diaphragm moves this way! I've been really lucky to work with a vocal coach and a wonderful keys player since I'm not the greatest at playing keys, so it's definitely a work in progress.
I think being able to play live will really help me to genuinely connect with my audience. I want to meet people, and seeing their faces will feel a lot better than just seeing numbers on my Spotify account. It'll feel a lot more real in that sense.
Are you nervous about playing live?
Oh yeah, I get major stage fright, which I'm working on. I'm such a believer in just getting your reps in, get your 10,000 hours, and then it's just like riding a bike. I've probably had like 200 hours now, so I've got a ways to go!
There's a flow state you can reach. Out of the very few small live shows I've done, there's been a couple of moments where the crowd is having a good time, I'm having a good time, and then it's just like ‘there is nothing I would rather be doing on this planet than being here in front of you people and singing a little tune’. It's the best feeling ever. Then there's other times when the crowd is doing their own thing - that's when you're like, ‘oh, get me out of here!’
But to do it for those moments where people are so excited to see you, and I'm so excited to see them, and it's just doing the thing that we all love? It's like heaven on earth. It's the best thing ever.
Beautiful. And what else have you got coming up?
I don’t know what I’m allowed to tell you! It's gonna be really cool, and I've been trying to brew on ways that I can make the live experience as visceral as possible. I've been trying to find ways that I can do a little bit of set design to really bring you guys into my mind palace. I'm so excited. As things grow, the more it's just gonna be really cool. I'm really excited.
‘Run Rabbit’ is out now via Neon Gold Record. You can download and stream here.
Follow Mollie Elizabeth on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube
