Cxloe joins Amy Shark, Dean Lewis and Troye Sivan in Australian global pop music explosion
AUSTRALIAN rising pop star Cxloe’s music career is on the rise — she was very emotional after she discovered Kyle and Jackie O were playing her new single this week.
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AUSTRALIAN rising pop star Cxloe was in tears after she discovered Kyle and Jackie O were playing her new single Show You this week.
The day before, she was informed Triple J were flogging the song. Spotify spotlighted Show You on their major playlists and Apple Music named her Artist Of The Week as it collected more than one million streams.
After chasing her musical dreams since childhood, through school choir to X Factor and then dozens of songwriting sessions in Australia and Los Angeles, Chloe Papandrea — professionally known as Cxloe — is on the cusp of chart success with a song she feared might be too pop for the gatekeepers at radio and streaming services.
“Tryna to act cool but i’m not @kyleandjackieo played Show You on breakfast radio today and I’m crying. I grew up listening to them and cannot believe life (right now),” she posted to Instagram.
But like all overnight successes, this one has been a lifetime in the making, with Papandrea abandoning her artistic ambitions for a few years to finehone her songwriting, composing cuts for other singers.
That came after years of working at her family’s pharmacy in Sydney’s northern beaches by day and gigging and writing by night.
“I have been going back and forth to America for the past four years, since I finished high school. I took every and any session I could find,” she said.
“It’s a vulnerable thing to pour out all of your emotions so it’s great writing for other people because you can hide behind them. When you are the artist, you are truly naked.
“And it took me a long time to find my sound; I went through so many different genres until I got to my first single Tough Love. I didn’t want to rush it.”
Tough Love made a strong first impression but the dark pop of her next single Monster turned on ears around the world, quickly amassing one million streams.
The song was inspired by the downsides of trying to carve out a career in the US.
HUGE thank you to @triplej for adding Show You to full rotation!! Thank you for celebrating Australian Pop music!!! 🖤🖤🖤 pic.twitter.com/KHGHDJWVVK
— CXLOE (@iamcxloe) August 20, 2018
“When I wrote Monster, I was in a phase where I was asking why is the industry like this? Why is it taking hold of me and I know have no control over it?” she said.
“If you’d asked me in high school, I would have said I want it all now. But you can’t cheat the system, and trust me, I’ve tried.
“I’ve tried to network with people to get shortcuts but you can’t, you just have to love it, every bit of it because you figure out quick smart none of this will happen overnight.”
She wrote Show You with Sam Farrar, a member of Maroon 5 and the son of legendary Australian composer and producer John Farrar who helped steer Olivia Newton-John to the top of the American charts in the 1970s and 80s.
Cxloe’s fledgling success arrives as Australian artists are punching above their weight in the new pop world, with Singe, Conrad Sewell, Amy Shark, G Flip, Tkay Maidza, Dean Lewis, Kota Banks, Jess Kent and many more catching the ears of fans and tastemakers in the US and Europe.
She has formed a squad of supporters in Los Angeles as more Australian songwriters and artists base themselves in America including her old school and choir mates, hitmaker Alex Hope and pop artist William Singe.
“There’s something in the water here. I grew up with Will, we were in a choir together. Two of our friends in a duo called Seaforth have just signed to Sony Nashville.
“We all grew up together on the northern beaches and it’s so crazy we are all doing what we wanted to do.
“It’s awesome to have friends over there that you grew up with because it can get really lonely.”
After she performs at the annual Australian music industry conference BigSound in Brisbane next month, Cxloe will head back to Los Angeles for the next G’Day USA concert Twilight On The Pier in Santa Monica alongside Betty Who and Touch Sensitive on September 12.