Empress Of

Honduran-American vocalist and songwriter Lorely Rodriguez, recording under the moniker Empress Of, produces reflective electro-pop that highlights self-empowerment through her striking, agile vocal delivery. Beginning with an array of ethereal material from 2012 onward, she pivoted toward a rhythmic and instinctive approach on her first full-length release, Me, in 2015, incorporating playful tones and percussive drive. The 2018 album Us, marked by extensive guest features, preceded her third LP I'm Your Empress Of in 2020, which explored themes of emotional loss and solitude. She followed that with the EP Save Me in 2022 along with joint tracks alongside Jam City, Jim-E Stack, and Rina Sawayama.

Raised in Los Angeles amid Latin and jazz influences, Rodriguez developed a teenage fixation on Björk that prompted her pursuit of a music career. Relocating to the East Coast, she started crafting sounds via laptop software. Initial notice arrived through anonymous 2012 YouTube uploads of extended experimental pieces titled “colorminutes,” each paired solely with one hue. Her debut 7" single arrived that November via No Recordings as the dreamy, downtempo pairing “Champagne”/“Don't Tell Me.” Early the next year, Japanese imprint Big Love Records issued Colorminutes on cassette, after which Empress Of joined Terrible Records and Double Denim Records for the 12" EP Systems, whose Spanish-language cut “Tristeza” received reworkings from El Guincho, Delorean, and Pional.

Throughout 2014 Rodriguez focused on new material, surfacing the more energetic and streamlined online single “Realize You.” Assembled across Mexico City, New York City, and Montreal, her XL/Terrible Records debut album Me emerged in September 2015 and reached the Top Ten on both the Billboard Heatseekers and Top Dance/Electronic Albums charts. Subsequent standalone releases included “Woman Is a Word” in 2016 and “Go to Hell” in 2017. That same year she contributed two tracks with DJDS, among them a cover of Lana Del Rey’s “Love,” both later featured on the duo’s May 2018 LP Big Wave More Fire. October 2018 brought her second album Us on Terrible Records, while Khalid’s concurrent EP Suncity included Empress Of on its title track, which became her first Billboard Hot 100 entry, peaking at number 88 and entering Canada’s Top 50.

She opened for Maggie Rogers across 2019 dates before unveiling the synth-driven third album I'm Your Empress Of in April 2020, a meditation on family ties, romantic fracture, and isolation. A 2020 collaboration with Amber Mark yielded “You've Got to Feel,” and 2021 saw further remixes plus joint work with MNDR, Marina, and Jarina De Marco. Save Me appeared as a solo EP in 2022. Rodriguez joined Jam City for the 2023 single “Wild n Sweet” and Lewis OfMan on “Highway,” then issued “Kiss Me” with featured vocalist Rina Sawayama.