Moody. Mesmerizing. Magical.
Dark pop singer-songwriter, Ellise, has been mesmerizing audiences with her haunting soundtracks and ethereal vocals for years while releasing spooky, hypnotic beats and enchanting yet heartbreaking ballads. Her most recent studio album, PRETTY EVIL along with it’s secondary release PRETTY EVIL DELUXE featuring four additional tracks, ties together her agony, anger, and empowered rage at her cheating ex with powerful hits, “dead2me,” “KEROSENE,” and the ever-lamentful, “valentine.”
When describing the inspiration for her new songs, Ellise shares:
“I was really broken, I was going through the worst breakup I’ve ever been through, just like that one really pivotal heartbreak that rewires your entire brain, that’s what was happening to me.”
Revered for her raw and impactful storytelling mixed with a dark and edgy style, Ellise has amassed a strong and loyal fanbase with streams in the multi-millions across Spotify, Apple Music and SoundCloud and over a quarter-million subscribers on YouTube. Her music videos are equally as mystifying and compelling as her songs with visual themes playing into October aesthetics, gothic romance and the occult. Her creativity is boundless and her artistry is just simply magnetic.
After opening for artists such as Madison Beer and Bishop Briggs in the recent past, Ellise celebrated her debut headlining tour, PRETTY EVIL, which ran from late July to late August across major North American cities and landed on Saturday night, August 23rd, at a sold out Moroccan Lounge in Downtown Los Angeles. As the final show date, Los Angeles got to see the tour to a successful close, celebrating Ellise’s accomplishments on her debut headline, her new album, and her renewed sense of independence from the depths of sorrows and her soul-sucking ex.
Ellise’s success can clearly be seen as well by her personable and relatable nature on stage and in interactions with fans. While introducing tracks off the freshly released PRETTY EVIL DELUXE album, Ellise opens up and lets fans in on her vulnerability as an artist:
“When I was making these songs, I was so sad, and they held this really sad, special place in my heart, so I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone here because by going on this tour, and getting to play in front of you guys, it’s totally given these songs a whole new breath of life and a whole new meaning, and when I think about these songs now, I think about you, and this, and not that man.”
She also admits to her early feelings of fear when it came to writing and releasing songs about her cheating ex, mentioning that she was afraid that everyone would know who the songs were about. She then explains that she eventually overcame the fear as the experiences of performing the songs to live audiences has helped her realize she doesn’t need to be afraid. Laughing, she adds, “being an artist is all about embarrassing yourself publicly.”
Her fans were incredible to witness in support of her healing journey and were thrilled to be part of the other side of her heartbreak. They took over the Moroccan Lounge by the numbers, dancing, singing and lamenting along with every lyric from the second she took stage and through the night.
We got to catch up with Ellise backstage before her performance and the amount of love and support from her camp and close friends was also heartwarming to witness. It must feel absolutely incredible to go from a gut-wrenching low while writing songs in a studio to an insurmountable high getting to perform them live to fans across the country and seeing all the people affected in a positive way by the healing powers of music and the honesty of her songwriting. To be able to rewrite the emotional experience and meaning of the songs, as Ellise mentioned, must also feel incredible.
After being graced with the soft melodies of alt-pop artist, Ella Red, the dark, Bohemian-vibed Moroccan Lounge settled into its interlude filled with frenzied eagerness for the headline set.
When Ellise followed her musicians onto the stage, the crowd erupted into shrill screams and uncontained excitement. Opening with the album’s cinematic opening track, “PRETTY,” was the perfect way to set the tone and energy for the night. A track that opens gracefully and slow, like a spring flower unfolding its petals to the light for the first time, with strings that soar and then settle in time for the first few sobering lyrics to come through, Ellise then further dissolves the fantasy with the sound of a blade slicing and a quick beat punching through as she sings in hindsight about the delusion of the romance. This track is a great performance and album opener, not only for the way it brings us into the song, but because it perfectly showcases Ellise’s strong ability in lyrical storytelling as well as her vocal graces in both the somber and ethereal realms.
As intense of a roller coaster as the relationship was, the PRETTY EVIL DELUXE album takes us on a similar ride through the ups and downs, illusions and realities, promises and heartbreaks of a toxic and deceitful relationship. Ellise’s set balanced the hypnotically energetic tracks of “runaway bride,” one of the album’s hit singles, “dead2me,” and sensational dark-pop triumph, “ballerina,” with the steadier-paced, alluring and dreamy sounds of “bite,” “cherry on top,” “KILL4ME,” “dead girl dreaming,” and “feel better together,” the regretful and heartaching ballad of, “LOSER,” and one of the most emotionally raw and moody hit singles, “valentine,” which was written for the the person her ex cheated on her with. Ellise also added in a high-favorite from the deluxe album, the sinister, synth-fueled, unapologetic, goth-girl anthem of the year, “KEROSENE,” as well as favorites from past releases, “MASOCHIST” and “911,” and a very well-appointed Deftones cover of “Sextape.” Ellise also surprises audiences with a performance of an unreleased song titled, “Die,” which she sings as a duet with Ella Boh.
Listening to Ellise’s new music on streaming services has been a very enjoyable experience, but it doesn’t nearly compare to the sheer magic and mightiness of hearing her sing live. Her ability to shift between crystal clear, high and delicate notes up in the ethers, to powerful and earth-shattering belts was an unforgettable phenomenon that any fan of Ellise or of dark-pop music should bring themselves to witness.
Possessed by the torment of a broken heart and climbing from the darkened depths of a toxic relationship, Ellise finds a way to transmute her pain into poetry and her woes into sonic delights with PRETTY EVIL and PRETTY EVIL DELUXE.
An incredible, spellbinding performer with entrancing, dynamic and dangerously tender yet courageous melodies, Ellise absolutely dominates the dark-pop world with a victorious sophomore album she craftily weaves for us, exposing her fragile, beating, bloodied heart and at the same time mending it back from the shatter and destruction of her ill-fated romance with a man to be doomed for eternity.
Be sure to keep an eye out for the next thing coming from this wondrously witchy and glamorously gloomy singer-songwriter, Ellise. We’ll be counting down the days until “Die” becomes ours, and we look forward to catching another spectacular performance on her next tour.
In the meantime, be sure to check out PRETTY EVIL and PRETTY EVIL DELUXE that you can listen to here.
GALLERY: Ellise at The Moroccan Lounge in Los Angeles, California (August 23, 2025)
