NME’s latest star of The Cover, Eli, has created an exclusive playlist to accompany the story’s launch – check it out below.
The rising American pop star is on this week’s (October 5) edition of The Cover, a manifestation of NME’s commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover – you can read Eli’s profile here, written by Bailey Slater and featuring photography by Emma Drew Berson.
Alongside her The Cover story, Eli has curated an exclusive playlist, titled ‘The Goddess Of Grieving’. The moody selection includes newer releases from Charli XCX, Ariana Grande, Phoebe Bridgers, as well as classics from the likes of Aretha Franklin and Alice Coltrane. Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below and on Apple Music.
Since the release of her 2025 debut album ‘Stage Girl’, Eli has garnered widespread acclaim for her theatrical and utterly head-bopping Y2K-coded pop songs, using deeply confessional lyrics to exhume the pain of past relationships (‘Marianne’) or interrogate the dysphoria and performance of gender as a trans woman (‘Somebody I’m Not’). This combination of raw and modern has earned her an ever-growing fanbase, which already includes Troye Sivan, Doechii and Zara Larsson.
There are plenty of positives to everything you’ve worked toward starting to fall into place, but breakout stars today also have to deal with a healthy dose of strife. The singer has been writing a lot to try and make sense of the mental and physical rollercoaster she’s found herself riding of late. “Breaking out and achieving a level of fame you wanted or affirmation from people you admire, getting commercials, I really did look at these things as a genuine escape from capitalism and having to work,” Eli tells NME over Zoom one sunny September morning.
“I thought that to be Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus or Selena Gomez that I’d suddenly be hella happy, I could come out as trans and be the baddest bitch, give all the fortune back to other people and keep a little bit for a nice house, a wife and a dog,” she continues. “But I’ve just realised that there’s bigger fish to fry, and bigger conversations to have.”
Read Eli’s full Cover story here and find out who else has been on The Cover here.
Every year, NME produces 50 Cover stories, showcasing the future of music via in-depth profiles and exclusive photoshoots. Check out our coffee table book NME The Cover 2024-2025, which features the likes of Kneecap, Lola Young, Amaarae, LE SSERAFIM, Oklou and many more.
