‘Mum Woke Me Up to Ask if I Wanted to Support Taylor Swift’

One spring day, when 19-year-old Sofia Isella was asleep, her mom came into her room and asked if she wanted to support Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium. “I was sleeping; I wasn’t the first to know about it. My mom slammed open my door early and was like ‘SOFIA. SOFIA,’” Isella shared. “While I was half asleep, she asked: ‘Do I wanna open for Taylor at the Eras Tour?’”

Isella and her mom found the situation hilarious. The answer was “obvious” (yes, of course), but the way it came about was funny to them. Even now, it still feels surreal. “I just keep repeating ‘wow,’” Isella says. “It didn’t register as real then, March 30, and… it still hasn’t.”

Isella’s mum is actively involved in her career, playing some of her music on stage and queueing up backing tracks. The rest of the Isella family also helps with the show, managing visuals and photos. They will all be helping Isella perform at Wembley, by far the biggest gig of her life.

SOFIA ISELLA – she stylizes her artistic name in capitals – was born in the US but has lived in Australia’s Gold Coast since the pandemic. Writing songs since she was eight, she’s built her career with low-fi gigs and online promotion. She only did her first headline show in London last month. A classically trained violinist, she has supported Tom Odell and Melanie Martinez.

Despite not having released an album yet, Isella has put out a series of singles since 2022 and will perform six songs at Wembley. These songs feature complex electronic production reminiscent of Billie Eilish. With 500,000 Instagram followers, Isella’s songs deeply resonate with her audience, who wonder why she’s not more well-known.

Though young, her work is mature and often intense. Like Swift, Isella values lyrics highly. Influenced by Trent Reznor, Beck, Sylvia Plath, and Margaret Atwood, her song “Unattractive” features the line: “I wanna pull my face off, it’s impulsive,” while “Everybody Supports Women” critiques performative social media feminism with lines like, “Everybody supports women until a woman’s doing better than you.”

Isella is one of five young women supporting Swift for five gigs this week, all opening before Paramore’s main act. Among them, she stands out, partly because she is the only non-British act. The others are RAYE, Suki, Holly Humberstone, and Maisie Peters.

A huge fan of Swift, Isella says Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department, deeply moved her, describing it as a “f**king hurricane” with “the most ribcage squeezing sentences.” Isella says, “Just the prolificacy alone, and not only that but the quality of prolificacy, was so inspiring I could cry.”

She frequently recalls lines from the album, saying, “It gave me that feeling of that’s what we’re all doing it for. To send shockwaves of that communal inspiration that regurgitates and recycles itself.”

Preparing for Wembley, Isella approaches this gig differently. “This whole thing is about celebrating Taylor’s legacy,” she explains. “Just to speak on it on a more physical level, it’s insane. I just get so excited for a challenge, I chomp at the bit… I’ve been going into mode for it since March. I know that Taylor trains for it like an Olympian and that’s the way to do it. She’s a fantastic role model for anyone, both men and women. I look up to her.”

Her family’s involvement in her music remains unchanged. “My mom is running the tracks backstage from empty spaces to Wembley Stadium, my little sister takes my photos, my dad made the intro visuals that I walk out to. They’re the reason I’m still sane… somewhat” she jokes.

Isella is eagerly anticipating the performance. “I can’t speak to why Taylor chooses her openers or what her thought process is because I’ve never talked to her, and I don’t know her personally,” she says. “But she creates an environment of safety in her world, especially in her live music setting, and that kindness and love that she cultivates into her fans makes it less daunting to be walking onto the biggest stage in the world.”

Source: Particlenews, SOPA Images, AFP, Getty Images