{"id":1972566,"date":"2026-06-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1972566"},"modified":"2026-06-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:00:00","slug":"wonderland-219","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1972566","title":{"rendered":"Wonderland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\tWonderland<\/span>
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\n\t\t\tU, ME & CHXRRY\u2019S EGO<\/span>
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On her debut album, U, Me & My Ego, Chxrry is the life of every party. Between braggadocious bars and sultry backdrops, the R&B pop star presents us a reality where desire is queen, every bad decision is the right one, and her worth is non-negotiable.\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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Chxrry\u2019s plan for world domination is in full effect. The Toronto-born, LA-based artist has had a landmark year, from the viral success of the self-confidence anthem \u201cMain Character\u201d<\/a> to working with celebrated designer Mowalola on the visuals, and finally opening for some star-studded contemporaries like FLO, Rema, and Mariah the Scientist. As she connects with Wonderland<\/em>,\u00a0 the 29-year-old Canadian is in Hawaii alongside the latter R&B heavyweight for a two-night appearance to promote their new collaborative song, \u201cBottles & Lights\u201d<\/a>. This kind of rapid success would rattle even the most steadfast of psyches, but days away from the release of her debut album, U, Me & My Ego<\/em>, Chxrry is unfazed, focused. \u201cI think right now I\u2019m just in preparation mode,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause I feel like everything\u2019s gonna change when this album comes out, and life is gonna get even crazier than it already is. I\u2019m just very excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born Lydia Habtemariam, Chxrry knew who she was from a very early age, thanks, in part, to her late mother. \u201cMy mom was very shameless and very herself, and I think I learned early on in life the power of being an individual, and how important that is\u2026Everything I do, I just try to make it one of one.\u201d Her natural singing talent was honed while growing up in Toronto\u2019s Ethiopian church community, but it wasn\u2019t until she was discovered through a viral video and signed to The Weeknd\u2019s XO Records four years ago that her dreams really came into view. At the time, she was a bored university student looking for some purpose, so she jumped at the chance. \u201cThere was no Plan B.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chxrry\u2019s artistic essence began in moody, dark R&B, but she found her stride in a sound that matched all her early inspirations, specifically pop and R&B. \u201c[For my inspirations], I think I\u2019ve always said Kanye West, because he truly is my north star. I guess I definitely listened to a lot of Nick Minaj, and her influence is very clear. Lana Del Rey, and a lot of soft rock and soft pop are from Canada. A lot of Michael Bubl\u00e9, too.\u201d She loves a little bit of everything, and in her own music, draws a line between pop with hip-hop influences and diaristic R&B to create something fresh yet reminiscent. \u201cI think that\u2019s why people are so enamoured by everything I do, because it feels like something you\u2019ve seen, but you\u2019ve never seen before, and if you don\u2019t like this, then you\u2019ll have to like this, and if you don\u2019t like that, then you have to like something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thematically, Chxrry pulls from her own life experiences and free-spirited nature. \u201cThis is not like something I\u2019m cosplaying, or pretending to be. I\u2019ve genuinely always just been a very crazy, fun party girl, and it just naturally comes out in my music. I think now it\u2019s becoming some sort of trendy aesthetic, but real party girls know.\u201d But being a committed party girl is just one side to Chxrry. There\u2019s a tender vulnerability that she uses sparingly but purposefully. On U, Me & My Ego<\/em>, Chxrry soundtracks her darkest impulses and embraces lofty ambition.<\/p>\n

While Chxrry did feel some pressure to create something notable after the success of \u201cMain Character\u201d, she refused to rush the release of her debut album. \u201cI felt like I knew it was time, because my visual world matched my sonic world,\u201d she pinpoints. \u201cEverything I\u2019ve been doing online last year, all the trends, the virality, the hair, the clothes, the songs, all of it was building my avatar.\u201d She didn\u2019t just want the album to match her inspirations; she wanted to create the music that she herself wanted to hear. And once \u201cU, Me & My Ego\u201d was written, she knew it had to be the title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cI basically personified my ego, and I just wanted to play on the complicatedness of having an ego and the beauty of it\u2026 because these songs are about Chxrry, which is my ego, Lydia, which is me, or \u2018You\u2019, which is a guy. All these songs are about one of these things.\u201c She studied the greats whom she admired, many of whom whose egos have come into question. Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Rihanna, Donna Summers, Diana Ross, Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion, Madonna. \u201cI was watching a lot of interviews, doing a lot of research, and just dissecting people with big egos. Why do I love them? Why have I always been drawn to the villain of a show?\u201d While writing the project, she challenged herself to explore those impulses. \u201cI\u2019m just gonna lean so far into myself that whoever\u2019s meant to fuck with me is gonna fuck with me, and they\u2019re gonna love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But egos are fickle things. One day, you\u2019re on top of the world and the next, you\u2019re clutching your pride. On the dreamy and confessional track, \u201cBIBLE,\u201d Chxrry exposes the more fragile parts of said ego as she wonders why a toxic love keeps her stuck. \u201cI love you more than I love myself \/ I hate that nothing on Earth can help<\/em>,\u201d she sings. This marks one of the few raw, unguarded moments of reflection on the record. To bring the rest of her otherwise self-assured tracks to life, she relied on a few special collaborators.<\/p>\n

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When selecting the features, Chxrry knew she had to go big or go home. \u201cI just wanted everyone on my album to be somebody that I consider a trailblazer.\u201d For the club-ready, drill-inspired track, \u201cBADNESS\u201d, she called on Cash Cobain. \u201cI think he\u2019s a true visionary. I think Cash has started a wave and a sound that no one can deny.\u201d And Mariah the Scientist instantly came to mind to complete her song, \u201cBottles & Lights.\u201d \u201cI think she\u2019s a poet, a genius, you know. One day she\u2019s going to be really honoured for all the music she\u2019s put out and all the great things she\u2019s said in her music.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even though she\u2019s faced pushback for owning her ego, with her music, Chxrry wants to be part of changing the narrative. \u201cI feel like there has to be a world eventually where women can just feel like they\u2019re the shit and they\u2019re not demonised for it. For as long as I can sing, and as long as I can make music, and I have a voice, I want to be somebody who is an advocate for women being very confident.\u201d On her motivation for creating \u201cBottles and Lights,\u201d she says, \u201cI wanted a song about that feeling when you regain your confidence after being in a very draining situation, and I feel like a lot of women know what that feels like.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As she prepares for the tidal wave to come \u2013 the album and tour \u2013 Chxrry tells it like it is, knows what she wants and is willing to put in the work to get there. \u201cI think my love for art has made me really appreciate [the greats] and appreciate everything that they did, and all the time they put in\u2026I hope that reads with my album, and I hope that reads in everything I do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Listen to the album\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

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Words \u2013 Ozioma\u00a0Nwabuikwu<\/em><\/p>\n

Photography \u2013 Alexandra Alva<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t4 June 2026\t\t\t<\/div>\n
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Feature Interview<\/a><\/div>\n
Music<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\tUNNAMED Is the \u2018It\u2019 Girl Go-To<\/span> <\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wonderland U, ME & CHXRRY\u2019S EGO On her debut album, U, Me & My Ego, Chxrry is the life of every party. Between braggadocious bars and sultry backdrops, the R&B pop star presents us a reality where desire is queen, every bad decision is the right one, and her worth is non-negotiable.\u00a0 Chxrry\u2019s plan for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,257],"class_list":["post-1972566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-wonderlandmagazine-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1972566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1972566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1972566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1972566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}