There will be four more new tracks on the deluxe album, all of which see Eli lean ever more into her skills as a vocalist: \u201cThere\u2019s this song \u2018Nobody\u2019s Girl\u2019 that is the fucking thesis of Stage Girl<\/em>,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a ballad that\u2019s aspiring to be Whitney Houston under a spotlight, but it\u2019s a trans girl with a low-ass voice who\u2019s trying to force her voice up higher than it should go.\u201d She wasn\u2019t always comfortable embracing the unique timbre of her voice, she explains, even if she now understands it\u2019s part of what gives her music its magic. \u201cAt some point, I just felt, Okay, you know what? I\u2019m owning the tones in my voice that used to make me dysphoric and used to make me feel icky about myself.”<\/p>\n Indeed, Eli talks freely about how embracing her identity as a trans woman coincided with her artistic breakthrough, around when she started sharing music online in 2023. \u201cIt really was aligned with my opening the floodgates for my ability to express myself after 20 years of pushing it all down and living in a state of dissociation and repression,\u201d she says. \u201cI feel very fortunate that, as terrifying as it was, I said, I\u2019m going to just go full-throttle in trusting my truth and showing up in the world<\/em>, even when it\u2019s in a time where I\u2019m scared.\u201d<\/p>\n Thankfully, it\u2019s exactly that\u2014the diaristic candor of her lyrics, as well as the occasional moments of humor\u2014that has helped steer her music away from pure pastiche and toward something more subversive and exciting. \u201cI truly believe in the power of pop music, I really do,\u201d she continues. \u201cMe and the girls are always like, \u2018We\u2019re spreading the journal of a doll.\u2019 And to me, that is the biggest, most important part\u2014the idea of being able to give myself and my community the chance to be even more at the forefront of the commercial music world.\u201d Eli also has no qualms about shooting for the mainstream, poking fun at herself for auditioning for one of the competition shows that inspired her visuals four times as a teenager. \u201cI\u2019m a commercial-ass bitch,\u201d she laughs. \u201cI grew up living for anything that was being shoved down my throat\u2014Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, all those things.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s the other element that has earned her such a loyal, passionate fandom so quickly: her killer instinct for world-building. Even before she signed to RCA, she\u2019d spend hours on Picsart putting together her single covers and mocking up collages for her Instagram posts: a delightfully chaotic mash-up of early internet clip art and glittery fonts\u2014like fan-made versions of the cover art for a Disney Channel star\u2019s first pop album\u2014with outfits straight out of a Y2K Delia\u2019s catalog. (Baby tees, frosted eyeshadow, skinny scarves, rhinestone belts, and a fedora\u2014often sequined, and worn deliberately askew\u2014are all in play.)<\/p>\n
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