INTERVIEW: Rising star Emei on her career and new EP 'Night at the Opera': "I like to be very energetic with my music - why am I playing music if I'm not gonna have fun? "

Interview: Shalane Connors
Image: Sol Koi
Published: 12 August 2026

Rising Chinese-American artist Emei is all about the drama - but in the best possible way.

Growing up in New Jersey, Emei's childhood was informed by her Chinese heritage, in particular through her grandmother. Attending a Chinese school on weekends, Emei primarily spoke Chinese at home and would constantly listen to Chinese pop. At just age 15, she even became something of a celebrity in China, coming third on Chinese Idol and also appearing on China’s Dancing With The Stars. 

And while Chinese culture had a major impact on her creativity, it was the glamour and drama of musicals, in particular West Side Story, that flicked the switch that made her fall in love with music and performing.

After completing a degree in cognitive science at Yale University, she began releasing her own music and in 2022 her single ‘Late to the Party’, a drawling R&B-indie-pop meld, became popular on TikTok and led to her debut EP, End of an Era later the same year. In 2023, her star rose even higher when the indie-pop single ‘Scatterbrain’ became a major hit, with over 82 million streams on Spotify to date and landing on Spotify’s Best Pop Songs of 2023 list.

Earlier this year, Emei released her fourth EP Night at the Opera, arguably her most flamboyant, dramatic and experimental release to date. Trading heavily on her love of musical theatre, the songs blend musicals with indie as well as a more pop focused sound. 

"I wanted to lean into being a theatre kid again... you’re going to get all of the pain, emotion, and drama from me!", she says. “Right now, I’m the most truthful version of myself. The music is fun, ridiculous, and honest. I’m doing exactly what I want to do.”

Opening the EP, the title track begins with violins and suitably dramatic lyrics - ‘Am I cursed? / Like a lead in the opera tragically doomed from birth’ - before breaking into a thumping, electro beat. The structure and pace changes throughout the song, between electronic pop and musical theatre, making the song a blast to listen to.

‘What’s The Point!’ has a frenetic, driving beat which Emei meets with her staccato vocal delivery, with a rocky, gothy-meets-synth chorus as she grapples with the feeling that love, friendship, relationships are ultimately pointless. ’I'm never getting hurt again, never letting no one in / R.I.P. Miss Innocence’.

‘Noah’ has an indie soundscape with throwbacks to 1980s new wave that delivers a warning to her friend on her new love interest - ‘Don't ruin your life for Noah’. ‘Bloom’ follows a similar sonic, but with a more vulnerable, melancholic tone to Emei’s vocal as she struggles with self-worth and the anxieties of growing up. ‘I start to think I've made it / But I'll always have these bruises from everything I've ruined.’ The juddering blast of ‘who is she?’ half way through the song emphasises the sense of discombobulation Emei sings of.

The EP ends with ‘Simple Request’, with its slightly off kilter, guitar opener that builds in intensity with a distorted wall of sound before sliding into a gentle, pared back ballad. Emei’s slightly reverbed vocal adds to the sense of otherworldliness as the soundscape of the song becomes more experimental and disconnected. Lyrically, she sings of wanting to just be with someone without the additional pressure of thinking past the moment. ‘I've got a simple request / Please don't talk to me about plans…I just want the simple things.’

Emei is an artist who is utterly unique but you can still feel comfortable with. Her melding of genres brings a new twist to everything she does, but the echoes of established sonics she twists throughout the songs evoke a rush of connectivity that warms the soul. Music to get truly excited about, we recently met with Emei on her visit to Australia to chat all about her career and Night at the Opera.

Emei, so good to see you, is this your first time in Australia?
It’s actually my third time. First time I was like 15, second time I toured - I did like three little shows here two years ago - and then this is my third time.

You entered the music scene in the social media heyday and you've got a couple of songs that reflect that constant necessity to present a highly curated, perfect life. How has your relationship with social media developed over the last five years of your career?
Such a good question. My parents are immigrants from China, so I genuinely didn't think I could do music in America. I had no idea where to start, no foot in the door, no idea. So I started posting on TikTok during COVID because what else was there to do? Then one of those videos went viral, and that was the beginning of that. It was the only reason I had any listeners, anything, so I owe a lot to social media. But now, as I've grown, I have two phones now - I have a social media phone and my life phone. it's really good for my mental health because otherwise it would be really bad.

That’s amazing. Social media definitely has pitfalls when it comes to mental health.
Especially as a creator. When I'm posting every day, it's not like I can just delete the app. I have to keep posting. It’s hard to balance just living your life and being present, and then scrolling, comparing yourself to other people, reading the comments. It's not good for your brain.

Do you think much of that will change now that you've got a team behind you?
Hopefully, but I'm just so used to doing it myself that it's one of those things that it's hard for me to let go of. I feel like it's my direct communication and channel to my fans and my followers, so I still feel really attached to it.

You grew up in New Jersey, but you did Chinese Idol. How did that come about?
I was 15, in the middle of high school, I was a child, you know. I was in China for the summer because my grandparents lived there, and this audition came up. I literally was like, ‘I love to sing, why am I not gonna go audition?’ I auditioned, and then boom, boom, boom I got third place. I was on the show for four months, it was crazy. My parents were like, ‘You can take a gap year’, and I was like, that's awesome! But they were like, ‘You have to come back to high school, you have to graduate.’ They were like very intense about that, which I'm very thankful for.

So that was your first foray into the public arena. You took a break, you went to Yale and studied cognitive science. How does one find their way into and then back out of cognitive science and back into music?
When I went to Yale, I decided that I wanted to have a traditional uni experience. I wanted to go to college and study something that's unrelated to music. I knew I wanted to do music, but I didn't want to study it. So I went to Intro to Cognitive Science in one of my first months on campus, and was like ‘cool’ and that was literally it. I wrote my thesis on it, and then I moved to LA and started music. It was a hard pivot!

Obviously you've got a strong pull to music, and you keep finding yourself back there. What were your influences like growing up as part of a Chinese immigrant family living in a Western world?
They didn't listen to any pop at all. The only thing I had was the West Side Story CD, the theatre production. That was the only thing we had in the car and my parents would just play it on loop. I listened to theatre all of my childhood, because I grew up in New Jersey, so it was like an hour away from Broadway. I was going to Broadway at Christmas, it was really awesome, and that was the beginning.

Your latest EP Night at the Opera is kind of a full circle moment where you have gone back to the theatre. How would you describe it to people that haven’t heard it yet? To me, it is just constant, unpredictable production choices that is really cool but I can't put a finger on what genre it is.
The thing I have always struggled with is staying within a sound box. I go into my sessions and I'm like I'm very like emotion forward. I like to lean into exactly how I'm feeling and pressing in that direction. It's really hard to be like, ‘I'm gonna make this type of song for this emotion constantly’. For me, I write the song, and then whatever production feels right with the music is what happens.

I feel like it's very emotional, and fun. I like to be very energetic with my music - why am I playing music if I'm not gonna have fun? It's kind of theatrical pop right now, for sure. We like to have fun.

Being of Chinese heritage, how important is representation for you in your career, both musically and visually?
So important. I grew up going to China every summer for like three months because my grandparents were there. My grandma basically raised me, and so I have a lot of creative inspiration from those summers. I listened to so much C pop growing up. Whenever we had dinner parties, my parents would be like, ‘Okay, now Emily's gonna go sing, everybody be quiet. She's gonna sing now’ and I would get on stage to sing Chinese songs. It’s definitely a big part of my music and my creative inspiration. With Night at the Opera I really wanted to dive into the Beijing opera elements, there's masks involved and all these things, and that's been really fun.

I had never heard of Beijing opera until today! It’s a very old tradition and it's super freaking cool.
It's super cool! I wanted to mix the two as well. There's definitely traditional, old opera house Venetian vibes, there's a mix of stuff., which is kind of like me. I grew up in so many different cultures.

Your breakout song ‘Late to the Party’ is super lovely, it comes from a place of not feeling like you’ve totally made it, or you're supposed to be where you think you should be at the ripe age of 21.
I know, I know! Even now, I listen to it back, and I'm like, ‘shut up!’ I'm like, ‘oh my god!’

How do you feel about that song now? Do you still feel like you're late to the party, or have you caught up?
I feel like I'm always gonna be late to the party. It’s so funny because when I wrote that I hadn’t even started my music career yet. So I get it, I was antsy because I was like I want to do this and I haven't even started. It's a special song because I've really related to it on so many levels at so many different ages. I felt that way when I was like 14, and then I felt that way when I was 25, all sorts of ages. So I think it's always going to be a thing.

I think that feeling is very typical of being both in the music industry and being a woman.
Oh my god yes. Facts.

That feeling of you've got an expiry date, time's running out. Specifically that sexualised image that is often a part of being a woman in the industry, have you felt the pressure to conform to that and have that as part of your brand?
For sure. But the thing is, I like being a woman. I mean, sometimes I'll complain about it because I'm like, wow, it takes me two hours to get ready. Which is some bullshit, right? Especially on tour, the boys in my band just literally take a shower and they go, it's such ridiculous stuff. But I get to do so many fun things, I get to be pretty all the time. I get to dress up, it's so fun.

For me, I want kids, that's a big thing that's always been in my life. But it’s like, I want to have children, and I want to tour. I don't know if I want to tour and have kids at the same time. So that is my clock. In the back of my head, I'm like I really gotta move, I got goals, we gotta go.

But you know, I think there's no rules. You can do anything if you allow yourself and you get rid of your limiting beliefs, I think you can do it all.

Amazing. What's coming up for you next that you can tell us about?
Well, I would like to say the last line of Night at the Opera is, ‘If you like Act One, you're gonna love Act Two’, so that's all. That's all I'm gonna say! I'm touring in the (northern) Fall. really excited about that. There's just always gonna be more shows, there's always gonna be more music. You'll have to drag me off stage!

Is live performance s huge love for you?
It's the best thing ever. It's my favourite thing. I'm really sad that we're here in Sydney and then we're going to Manila and we're going to all these different countries, and we're only playing three shows. I'm so upset. If it was up to me, I'd be playing shows every day.

What do you take with you on the road? What's your must take?
Whoa! Great question. My journal. I have it literally with me at all times. I need it to decompress. I have so many things moving around in my brain, and I have to get it on paper to move on.. So definitely my journal. It's way of organising all my thoughts. I try to put everything in there. I got to-do lists, random song ideas I have it's awesome.

Who's your woman in pop? Who's your main your go-to?
Right now, it's Olivia Rodrigo.Her new album, You Seem Pretty Sad For a Girl So In Love, was so good. There's a few songs in there that are like really good.’Expectations’ is really good. ‘Less’ is really good. She's a pop girl, and I love pop but I think this album has really spoken to me in a different way. She's great.

Oh and ABBA! They are always on rotation!

Night at the Opera is out now via Atlantic Records/Nice Life, You can buy and stream here.
Follow Emei on Instagram, TikTok and her website.