Biography
Softee crafts passionate synthesizer pop that fuses quirky lo-fi indie electronica with '80s pop and yearning R&B. The lustful 2019 single "Oh No" and the following year's lovelorn "Crush," taken from her debut album Keep On, brought modest recognition; the latter earned a television placement ahead of her City Slang label debut Natural, a more R&B-heavy set issued in 2023.
Born Nina Grollman, Softee spent her Moorhead, Minnesota, childhood idolizing pop stars and practicing karaoke in the family basement. She later assembled a bedroom studio to record covers before turning to original material, which she performed using loop pedals across New York City's D.I.Y. venues. Her theatrical training led her to Juilliard for drama studies and then to Broadway, where she joined the 2018 revival of The Iceman Cometh alongside Denzel Washington and later portrayed Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird with Jeff Daniels. Between those engagements she issued "Oh No" as Softee in May 2019; the sultry living-room synth pop drew blog attention and hundreds of thousands of streams. That August she released her first EP, Slow Melt, and in November stepped into the Mockingbird revival, succeeding Tony winner Celia Keenan-Bolger.
When that production closed in March 2020, Grollman finished Keep On and self-released it that October. "Crush" appeared in a 2022 episode of Queer as Folk, and her 2023 SXSW shows featured backup singers plus souped-up backing tracks. A subsequent deal with City Slang paved the way for Natural, which arrived in May 2023 and included guest spots from rappers Namir Blade and Jordan Webb on one cut while sampling Squid Game on "Red Light Green Light."
Born Nina Grollman, Softee spent her Moorhead, Minnesota, childhood idolizing pop stars and practicing karaoke in the family basement. She later assembled a bedroom studio to record covers before turning to original material, which she performed using loop pedals across New York City's D.I.Y. venues. Her theatrical training led her to Juilliard for drama studies and then to Broadway, where she joined the 2018 revival of The Iceman Cometh alongside Denzel Washington and later portrayed Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird with Jeff Daniels. Between those engagements she issued "Oh No" as Softee in May 2019; the sultry living-room synth pop drew blog attention and hundreds of thousands of streams. That August she released her first EP, Slow Melt, and in November stepped into the Mockingbird revival, succeeding Tony winner Celia Keenan-Bolger.
When that production closed in March 2020, Grollman finished Keep On and self-released it that October. "Crush" appeared in a 2022 episode of Queer as Folk, and her 2023 SXSW shows featured backup singers plus souped-up backing tracks. A subsequent deal with City Slang paved the way for Natural, which arrived in May 2023 and included guest spots from rappers Namir Blade and Jordan Webb on one cut while sampling Squid Game on "Red Light Green Light."
Albums
Singles
