SOPHIE, the influential British producer who shaped electronic music into original avant-garde pop, was killed in an accident on Saturday morning (January 30), a representative confirmed. SOPHIE died at about 4 a.m. in Athens, Greece, where the artist had lived. In a statement, labels Transgressive and Future Classic wrote: “True to her spirituality, she had ascended to watch the full moon and accidentally slipped and fallen. She will always be with us. “
SOPHIE appeared in the European club in the early 2010s and broke out with a number of inventive, house-based singles, including “Nothing More to Say” in 2013. The next single “Bipp”, a blatant and disembodied anthem, signaled a new direction and brought international recognition, both from dance DJs and in the lists of music publications at the end of the year across genres. The following tracks “Lemonade” and “Hard” mixed distinctive vocals and aggressive sound design in SOPHIE’s music and gave pop an unmistakable twist. SOPHIE’s collaboration in 2014 with PC Music founder AG Cook and Quinn Thomas, QT’s “Hey QT”, embodied the new form, a hyperactive sugar rush of outrageously euphoric hooks.
The 2015 compilation PRODUCT collected these singles and added new music like “Just Like We Never Said Goodbye” which indicated another phase of innovation. In 2018, SOPHIE – who, according to one rep, doesn’t use gendered or non-binary pronouns – released a proper debut album, Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides, which prominently features SOPHIE’s own vocals. Until then, the producer’s identity was a mystery, but in the press around the debut, SOPHIE stepped into the frame of videos and photo shoots and came out as a trans. Widely hailed as a milestone in forward pop music, the record garnered a 2019 Grammys nomination for Best Dance / Electronic Album and recognition in the album lists of the decade the following year.
SOPHIE’s enormous influence on pop and electronic music is based not only on this solo discography, but also on an extensive catalog in collaboration with others. This repertoire includes productions for Vince Staples, Madonna and especially Charli XCX who said in 2019: “There are very few artists who make me feel at my core and make me cry. Justice and Uffie made me feel something when I was 14, and I didn’t really feel that feeling again until I met Sophie. I felt this rush of, shit, this is the coolest shit I’ve ever heard. “
In a statement, the SOPHIE representative wrote: “During this time, respect and privacy for the family are our priorities. We would also like to ask for respect for the SOPHIE fan base and treat the private nature of these messages with sensitivity. “
