Rachel Chinouriri realised her life had changed on a flight to Dublin. She had just left the Brit Awards in London and was heading to support Sabrina Carpenter on the European leg of her 2025 Short and Sweet tour. Sitting in economy, she knew that within a couple of hours she would be performing in front of 13,000 people wearing a plunging, hooded jumpsuit packed in her suitcase. “I just kind of sat and went, ‘F***, what is my life?’” the 27-year-old singer recalls.
A career marked by milestones
Other moments could have sparked that reaction: her recent appearance on SNL UK, or being the only English act on the billing of Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields festival this summer, alongside Doechii, Chappell Roan and Stevie Nicks. There was also the cameo by Oscar-nominated actor Florence Pugh in the video for her 2024 single Never Need Me, which sent the song viral.
The real life-changer was her debut album, What a Devastating Turn of Events, an indie-pop LP influenced by artists like Lily Allen, Kate Nash, Blur and The Libertines. She recalls meeting Coldplay drummer Will Champion backstage at Glastonbury in 2025, fangirling while others didn't recognise him.
Breaking the pigeonhole
Chinouriri used her debut to push back against being labelled a soul or R&B singer. “I’ve worked hard to push that I’m indie,” she says. “But there’s also an ability to pigeonhole yourself when you’re trying to prove something.”
Her second album, I Think I Spoke Too Soon, is capital P pop music, though indie remains in tracks like AAAHHH!!! and I’m a Star. The opener and lead single, One Song Away From Crying, sets the tone with disco guitar and melancholy lyrics: “Mirror wall, disco ball, I’ve never looked better and I’ve never felt worse.”
The album chronicles a night out from start to finish, capturing the conflict of wanting to leave but staying. The track Broken Chair, co-written with Lucy Dacus, is a nursery rhyme-esque take on an addiction spiral, finding kinship with a discarded chair on the street.
Finding sobriety
Chinouriri has been sober for over a year, prompted by three blackouts after her first album's release. “I blacked out three times,” she recalls. The first left her anxious about what she'd said; the second involved meeting a fan; the third ended it: “Nah, this is done.”
She grew up in a strict Zimbabwean household where alcohol was banned, so she couldn't turn to her parents for support. Her father, Simba, has debilitating epilepsy, and her mother, Melody, once worked four jobs. Chinouriri was the first in her family born in Britain, and her parents initially hoped she'd become a police detective, not a singer.
Now sober, she finds support from peers like Lola Young, PinkPantheress, and Florence Welch, who has been sober for 12 years. “There’s actually loads of people [in pop] who don’t drink; you just don’t know,” she says. “You can have a crazy schedule and actually make all these parties and things, and the reason you can make them is that you’re not drinking.”
Life has been easier since quitting. She recently joked about her boyfriend Isaac's hangover, and she performed at SNL and Daisy Chain Fields while fighting bronchitis, noting she “couldn’t hit so many notes” but still had fun.
One recent highlight was performing for Adele at her LA show. Adele chose a seat in plain sight, next to the bar. “I was like ‘Are you sure? Is she sure?’” Chinouriri recalls, “but she’s Adele, so she’s sure.” The event went smoothly, though they haven't met face to face yet. For Chinouriri, there are still plenty of “F***, what is my life?” moments to come.
