Empress Of shares new single "SYW" feat. Cecile Believe

EMPRESS OF SHARES NEW SINGLE “SYW” FEAT. CECILE BELIEVE NEW ALBUM DREAM HOUSE DUE SEPT 18TH VIA GIANT MUSIC

Empress Of and Cecile Believe by Hada Navarro  What the press is saying about Empress Of: "Rodriguez dials into an insatiable new groove, reprising an effusive, sensual point of view" Pitchfork ‘Best New Music’ "Arguably her greatest work yet" Elle Magazine “Call this her auteur era” Rolling Stone "she’s working with the right people, she’s covering topics and themes that really resonate and she’s doing it with irrepressible energy” NPR “SYW” WATCH: https://youtu.be/o3sRE2LCYlE LISTEN:  https://empressof.lnk.to/SYW PRE-ORDER: Dream House https://empressof.lnk.to/DreamHouseAlbum (Aug 7th, 2026) – Empress Of shares a new single, “SYW,” from her forthcoming album Dream House, due September 18th via Giant Music. An acronym for "say you wanna," the track features her close friend and longtime collaborator Cecile Believe (Steve Lacy, SOPHIE, Caroline Polacheck). It begins with Empress Of's lone voice as she sings, "A natural disaster, after / You treat me like a stranger, stranger," before steadily building into a euphoric, club-ready anthem propelled by pulsing production and emotional urgency. Speaking about the song Empress Of shares, "I love this song because it’s a part of the story in such an urgent, energetic way. Also, to collaborate with Cecile was such a dream." Written in the aftermath of the devastating Altadena fires that destroyed Empress Of’s family home, Dream House is an ode to the loss, resilience, and the fragile work of rebuilding. Across the album the theme of rebuilding extends far beyond the restoration of the physical structures - it encompasses the emotional, and psychological work of recovering from loss in all its heavy forms.  To celebrate the album release Empress Of will be performing a show at Music Hall of Williamsburg in New York on September 30th. The night will be one of the venue's final performances with Music Hall closing its doors this Fall. The show represents a full circle moment for Empress Of who played the venue earlier in her career and the celebration will pay homage to the storied venue mirroring the commemoration of endings and beginnings throughout the album.   Dream House is Empress Of’s most personal and unguarded work to date: an intimate portrait of Lorely finding her way back to herself, her creativity, and her sense of joy through music. Speaking about how the beginnings of the album came together Empress Of shares, “One afternoon I made a little voice memo while playing a piano mumbling the phrase, ‘I wanna build a dream for you.’ That’s when this whole thing kind of started. Like a little spark. Someone said a phoenix isn’t born, it's remembered and in making this album I remembered why I make music.”  Empress Of worked closely with Cecile Believe through the making of this album. The project also features Blood Orange, with whom Lorely made a recent guest appearance during his lauded Coachella performance. Empress Of’s mother, Reina, also lends her voice to the record. Throughout the making of this album, Empress Of and her mother were physically rebuilding their family home; watching the foundation being poured, the walls framed, and eventually the roof and front door installed, a tangible manifestation of the emotional rebuilding happening alongside it. The music embodies this same process, mirroring the slow work of reconstruction. While her mother has long been a mainstay of her albums, her participation here feels more resonant than ever before. Dream House opens a new chapter for Empress Of, following her acclaimed 2024 album For Your Consideration that arrived with label Giant Music. The bi-lingual release was named Best New Music by Pitchfork, who called it “dazzling,” and saw Empress Of embracing camp, fantasy, and her role as executive producer. Over the course of her career Empress Of has collaborated with the previously mentioned Blood Orange, Shygirl, Tommy Genesis and Boys Noize. She has also opened for Lorde, Rina Sawayama and Carly Rae Jepsen and performed at major festivals including Outside Lands, Austin City Limits, Portola, and Corona Capital. Listen to “SYW” above and stay tuned for more from Empress Of coming soon.  

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