Isabella

When Isabella sings “I’m a Birkin bag, you a laundry bag” on the opening line of her new single
“Tag,” she does so with understated confidence. The 21-year-old singer and songwriter oozes
charisma over the minimal beat, calling out those who bite her style in a cocky whisper. Though
her raspy-voiced brashness is more than convincing, there’s also a more grounded reason for
her ASMR-like delivery: Isabella was extremely sick and had almost lost her voice when she
recorded the song. “I’m not really confrontational,” she says. “I felt like this was my time to just
say what I felt.”
Raised in Los Angeles by her Ethiopian mother and Danish father, Isabella began modeling at
the young age of 5, guided by her mother, a stylist and former model herself. As a kid, she was
naturally drawn to music and performance, entering singing competitions at school and belting
her heart out to Destiny’s Child and Cristina Aguilera for whoever would listen. At 16, alongside
her fast-rising modeling career, she began to seriously pursue music, learning from songwriters
and producers during her initial experiences in the studio. “We were able to create songs that I
loved but it wasn’t completely coming from me,” she says. She decided to take a step back
and immerse herself in the songwriting process, discovering more about who she was and
what she wanted to say on her own terms.
After releasing stunning videos for her first two singles “Three” and “More Than Words” in
2018, Isabella spent every night in the studio with producers Timmy Manson Jr. and Mike
Barney, recording deeply personal music that began to form a complete body of work. 12
Angels, her first full-length project due out July 31, is a collection of songs that clearly displays
the versatility of her voice and pen, while each adding their own piece to the larger theme.
“With each one of the songs, it’s been about me realizing I am a treasure in all these different
ways,” Isabella says. “There’s so much darkness and negativity in music and that’s been made
to be cool. I wanted something that would feel warm.”
The title of the project is inspired by something her mother would say whenever Isabella would
leave for school or go on a trip: “twelve angels are protecting you.” It’s a preventive phrase that
Isabella has brought with her into adulthood and one she now believes is a protection over the
project itself. “I’ve been trying to do music for so long and there had been so many times
where people have been telling me what I should be doing,” she says. “There’s a reason for
why I was supposed to do this now.”