Music

Greta Isaac Releases New Single ‘Movie Star’ and Announces New EP Dolly Zoom Out August 8th

1 August

Greta Isaac is having her main character moment. The Welsh-born, London-based artist (who you might also know from FIZZ) just dropped her glittering, unapologetically dramatic new single “Movie Star,” and it’s exactly the kind of deliciously chaotic pop we need right now. Its reminiscent of early 2000s Katy Perry with a touch of camp horror, thick eyeliner, and the energy of someone kicking open a door in six-inch heels, yeah, it’s that good.

“I feel like a movie star… I am a movie star, I am a, I am a movie star,” Greta chants on the track, with all the confidence of someone posing on a red carpet and starting drama in the VIP section. One of the song’s standout lyrics? “Dear diary, I am about to make a scene / I just don’t know if there’s enough room up in here for her and me.” The song is pure chaos, it’s cinematic, and it’s so, so fun.

“Movie Star” is the latest release from her upcoming EP Dolly Zoom (out August 8 via Kartel Music Group), and it’s not just a single, it’s a character study. The song, like the whole Dolly Zoom era, is all about performance, delusion, and craving attention in a world that’s already over-saturated with it. “Here we really hear Dolly’s Delusion kicking into overdrive,” Greta says. “Ultimately it’s a song about the addictive desire for attention; where the extremities are limitless, self-sabotaging is turned up to 100, the stories we tell ourselves and others are grotesquely heightened for dramatic effect, and the need for validation becomes our own personal first language.”

The Dolly Zoom project introduces an alter ego that feels like the long-lost fourth Powerpuff Girl — if she escaped the lab, discovered glitter and fishnets, and started monologuing about love and chaos under flashing stage lights. It’s pop music dialed up to eleven: euphoric synths, gritty rock edges, lyrics that bite as much as they sparkle, and a total rejection of anything lukewarm. Greta’s voice shape-shifts across the track, slipping from wide-eyed sweetness to venom-laced attitude in a single breath.

“Dolly is a character of extremes,” Greta explains, a collaboration with visual artist and longtime friend Karina Barberis. “She is the mania that runs beneath a rationalised exterior; the vision you might have of screaming at someone you smile politely to instead, the thought you have of jumping off a high building but never doing it, the disturbed, hyper, playful, imaginative parts of us we subdue. Dolly Zoom is a character born out of restriction and ordinariness, a means of unleashing the messy parts of us that society wants us to conform to.”

If “Movie Star” sounds like a glitter bomb went off in your headphones, it’s because it basically did. And this isn’t just a one-off. It follows her equally unhinged, wonderfully weird single “Soft Scoop Talking Dog,” which already caught the ears of BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, Dork, Dummy, Far Out, and more. Before that, she dropped her Productive Pain EP earlier this year, a stunning project that earned her support from Hunger, Clash, and DIY.

The visuals for “Movie Star” are just as bold. Styled by Greta and Karina Barberis, with pieces by Ms Maskie, Molangela, and more, the look is full-throttle glamour meets theatrical mischief. There’s direction from Laurie Case, makeup by Molly Whiteley, hair by Giuseppe Stelitano, and an entire dream team behind the scenes bringing Dolly Zoom’s world to life. Think: set design by Asya Peker, logo design by Harry Yates, and a video shot by Lollie-Alexi Ipinson-Fleming.

And if you’re wondering when you can see all this chaos live, mark your calendar. Greta plays London’s Omeara on September 3, with more dates on the way.

“Movie Star” is out now, streaming everywhere. While Dolly Zoom, the EP, drops August 8. Until then, Greta Isaac just gave us the perfect soundtrack for our own main character era.

Stream Movie Star Here