A tribute to SOPHIE

“I hope you don’t take this the wrong way

But I think your inside is your best side” 

On January 30th, 2021, Sophie Xeon (known professionally as SOPHIE) tragically passed away at the age of 34.

To say that SOPHIE was an inspiration to many would be an understatement. SOPHIE represented a new way of thinking about genre, identity, and music, touching the thousands of people who saw themselves within the artist’s work. 

SOPHIE entered the electronic music scene in the early 2010s, and in less than a decade, developed an original sound that would influence artists such as Charli XCX and other avant garde pop stars. SOPHIE’s signature sound was representative of a 21st-century maximalism, experimenting with sonic textures and subverting the pop genre into a refreshingly futuristic soundscape. 

The 2018 Grammy-nominated debut album Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides featured SOPHIE’s own voice for the first time in the song “It’s Okay to Cry,” leading the artist to come out as a trans woman.

Growing up, I didn’t know that being transgender was a possibility for me. SOPHIE was one of the first people to change that. Like many discoveries in my life, coming to terms with my identity was a slow burning fire, developing over time with waves of realization. 

Seeing artists like SOPHIE not only exist in the public eye but make their own waves, in the development of both their art and identity, helped myself and others feel safe and seen. 

In a 2018 interview with PAPER magazine, SOPHIE spoke of transness, stating “For me, transness is taking control to bring your body more in line with your soul and spirit so the two aren’t fighting against each other and struggling to survive….It means you’re not a mother or a father — you’re an individual who’s looking at the world and feeling the world. And it’s somehow more human and universal, I feel.” 

Words like these are the reason why I am able to live authentically today, and as an artist myself, I hope to create work that also honors this wisdom.

However, to limit SOPHIE’s influence and achievements to the singular label of “transgender artist” is not only reductive, but inaccurate. SOPHIE was an artist whose multiplicity transcended genre, forever changing the face of pop music for the better. SOPHIE was a visionary, seeing beyond the constraints of pop music, into the future where anything is possible.

SOPHIE continues to move listeners worldwide, from musicians of all genres to generations of LGBTQ fans, and everyone else in between. Let us remember SOPHIE as someone who taught us that “it’s okay to cry,” that finding your identity is a sacred, human process, and that art is truly limitless. 

Written by Noah Larsen