Before she was a Grammy-nominated artist and a YouTube sensation, Poppy was a dancer. For 11 years, the Boston native spent evenings and weekends in the dance studio, throwing herself into tap and jazz and dreaming of becoming a Rockette. Of course, dance is inseparable from music—songs set the tempo, inspiring each dip and turn. It’s only natural that Poppy became enamored with music. By her teen years, her personal playlist brimmed with the colorful, outspoken icons of the ’70s and ’80s: David Bowie, Gary Numan, Cyndi Lauper, and Blondie. Though she enjoyed dancing, there was something magical about music that she couldn’t shake.

But Poppy, born Moriah Rose Pereira, didn’t want to just listen—she wanted to be the one making the music that moved her. Her family’s relocation to Nashville, Tennessee, when she was 14 years old offered her access to local songwriting workshops where she honed her craft with others.

“Singing came a little bit later, because I was pretty afraid of my voice, and people looking at me,” Poppy notes. Eventually, however, the young artist worked up the courage, knowing she was the only one who could perform her songs exactly the way she’d written them.

At 18, she moved to L.A., ready to pursue a career in music. Like so many artists before her, the singer invented a kind of alter ego to help her express her work—a mysterious, soft-spoken, platinum blond who appeared in abstract, performance-art-style YouTube videos. Poppy was born and snagged her first record deal in 2014 with Island Records. In 2017, the artist released her debut album, Poppy.Computer, a frenetic blend of art and electro-pop bangers that peaked at 11 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart, proving this viral sensation was anything but a flash in the pan.

Since her debut, the singer-songwriter has released four more albums, experimenting with genres as diverse as heavy metal, industrial rock, and every kind of pop under the sun. For the now 28-year-old, relentless experimentation has always been her genre of choice. “I feel like it’s always the artist’s responsibility to change the course and evolve,” she says.

Her most recent album, 2023’s Zig, channels alt-pop across 11 pulsing, darkly ethereal tracks. When she was feeling her way into this latest collection of songs, an unexpected theme emerged: empowerment. In the cheeky fashion-inspired song “Knockoff,” she unabashedly declares she wants “that real shit” kind of love; the title track “Zig’’ sees her promising that “When you zig, I zag,” the defiant chorus looping until the words blur into a tidal wave of pure opposition; the anthemic “Motorbike,” inspired, as she says, by “the fact that when I see a woman on a motorcycle, I always stare a little bit longer at her,” reflects Poppy’s affinity for taking the reins of her journey—in music and in life.

The percussive, beat-driven album also gave the songstress a chance to return to her dance roots—several of the project’s music videos boast airtight choreography. Zig is Poppy in full bloom. The decade since her move to Los Angeles has been unpredictable, her career soaring beyond what she dreamed of as a quiet teenager back home. But, as she chats excitedly about going on tour in 2024, it’s clear the chameleonic artist hasn’t lost an ounce of passion for her craft in that time. “I’m having fun and enjoying it right now,” she says. “But if I ever get bored, or want to do something else, I’ll change.”

This story appears in the pages of V146: now available for purchase!

Photography Dennis Leupold

Fashion Marta Del Rio

Makeup Esther Foster

Hair Patricia Morales at The Visionaries Agency for Rizos Curls

Set design Michael Sturgeon

Production Jordan Metz (Art+Department)

Digital technician Kevin Leupold

Photo assistants Tommy Blanco, Winston Kingstro, Allison Lopez, Sabrina Patino

Stylist assistant Kiera Maroney

Hair assistant Travis Takara

Set design assistant Ryan Schaefer

Location Dust Studios