Beatrice Kristi Ilejay Laus, known professionally as Beabadoobee, is a Filipino-British singer-songwriter. Laus was born in Iloilo City in the Philippines in June 2000 and moved to the United Kingdom with her parents at the age of three. She grew up in West London listening to original Pinoy music as well as pop and rock music from the 1990s. While she was a teenager, she listened to indie rock artists including Karen O, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Florist and Alex G. She studied at Sacred Heart High School, an all-girls Catholic school, before completing her thirteenth year at Hammersmith Academy. She was expelled from her school at 17 years old, due to failing grades “misfit behaviour”. Laus spent seven years learning to play the violin, before getting her first guitar second-hand at the age of 17. She also learned through watching YouTube tutorials produced by other accomplished guitarists. She was inspired by Kimya Dawson and the Juno soundtrack to start making music.
The first song Beabadoobee wrote on her guitar was “Coffee”. She took her professional name as a joke when her friend and producer Oscar Lang was preparing to upload “Coffee” and suggested she release her music under an artist name. Beabadoobee was a name she had invented for her finsta account because none of her names were being accepted by Instagram. She released “Coffee” as well as a cover of Karen O’s “The Moon Song” in September 2017. “Coffee” gained over 300,000 views on YouTube, as well as the attention of Dirty Hit Records. She signed to the label in April 2018. This was followed by the release of her debut EP Lice in March 2018 and her second EP Patched Up in December 2018. In January 2019, Beabadoobee was placed with Billie Eilish on NME’s annual list of “essential new artists”, the “NME 100”. She subsequently released her third EP titled Loveworm. Beabadoobee released an acoustic version of this EP titled Loveworm (Bedroom Sessions) in July 2019.
In September 2019, Beabadoobee embarked on her first tour supporting Clairo on her Immunity Tour, before releasing her fourth EP, Space Cadet, in October 2019. Beabadoobee subsequently made the front cover of NME in October 2019. She was shortlisted for the Rising Star Award at the 2020 Brit Awards in December 2019. In November 2019, Beabadoobee released a pair of Spotify Singles, one being a cover of “Don’t You Forget About Me” by Simple Minds as well as a version of “She Plays Bass” recorded in Abbey Road Studios in London. In December 2019, Beabadoobee was longlisted in the annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2020.
A sample of Beabadoobee’s 2017 debut single “Coffee” was used on Canadian rapper Powfu’s 2019 single, “Death Bed (Coffee for Your Head)”. The song became a massively successful sleeper hit after going viral on the app TikTok in early 2020, becoming Beabadoobee’s first official chart entry in her career, both locally and internationally. By April 2020, it had entered the Top 5 in several countries including the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. It earned gold certification status in Belgium, Canada, France, Mexico and New Zealand, as well as Platinum or higher in the U.S. and the U.K. among several other countries. Speaking about her reaction to the popularisation of “Death Bed”, Beabadoobee said, “I’m not going to lie, it was overwhelming… I kinda hated it. I hated more people knowing about the first song I’d ever written and not my others. I was so stubborn but I grew into it and accepted that’s just how life works. I was extremely grateful for its existence and it’s only given me more opportunities.”
Beabadoobee announced her debut studio album, Fake It Flowers, and released its lead single “Care” in July 2020. In early August 2020, she released the album’s second single, “Sorry”, and revealed the album’s track listing, cover art and official release date. Beabadoobee released “Worth It” as the third single, “How Was Your Day?” as the fourth single, and “Together” as the fifth and final single of Fake It Flowers. The album was released on 16 October 2020 to critical acclaim and spent one week in the UK Albums Chart at number 8. According to sales in the United States, Billboard ranked Beabadoobee as the Top New Rock Artist of 2020. In 2021, she embarked on a headlining tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland to support the album. Beabadoobee released the single “Last Day on Earth” on 24 March, produced and co-written by Matty Healy and George Daniel of the 1975. The musician announced that the single is taken from her EP Our Extended Play, which she said that she wrote with her label mates “on the countryside”.
Her second album, Beatopia, was announced in March 2022. It was released on 15 July 2022 through Dirty Hit and spawned the R.I.A.A. Gold certified song “The Perfect Pair.” In January 2023, Beabadoobee posted the snippet of an unreleased song on TikTok, which soon went viral across the website due to its popularity with couples and the approach of the upcoming holiday. “Glue Song” was later released on Valentine’s Day, 14 February 2023, with another version featuring Clairo released in April 2023 which charted in several countries. The collaboration gained significant attention and marked a continued evolution in her sound, blending chamber pop with heartfelt lyrics inspired by her personal experiences. She then announced a new single in July 2023, called “The Way Things Go”. Beabadoobee then released a new single with Laufey, “A Night to Remember”, which was released in October 2023. Her third studio album, This Is How Tomorrow Moves, was released in August 2024, which went on to debut at number 1 in the UK, making it her first number-one album.
