Chrissy Chlapecka Is Entering A New Era

Amid the neon pink curtains of her LA home, Chrissy Chlapecka sits in a turquoise tracksuit, gesturing animatedly as her platinum blonde hair falls over her shoulders. You can hear the pitter-patter of her miniature dachshund, Sugar Sparkles, running circles around her feet, yipping as Chrissy smiles into the camera.

If you’re one of the five million people who follow Chrissy on social media, you may know her as the sugar pop princess, with hits like “I’m So Hot” and “Head Bitch.” After going viral for her music in 2023, Chrissy has held onto her high-pitched voice, pink body glitter, and winged eyeliner, creating unapologetic anthems for fellow hyper-femme lesbians.

But now, the 25-year-old is ready to break out of her sickly sweet shell. She let GO in on a secret: her upcoming project, Nicole Vegas, is a sonic departure from her debut EP Girlie Pop, and she’s more comfortable than ever.

“I enjoyed my time making fun, hyper-pop, Britney Spears-sounding kind of stuff. I’ve been a performer my whole life and a musical theater girl. I didn’t feel as sonically connected to my old stuff as I do in my new songs,” Chlapecka tells GO, referring to her latest singles “Cherry Do You Love Me” and “Clam Casino,” both part of Nicole Vegas.

In the “Cherry Do You Love Me” music video, released in May, she taps into the ‘80s glam rockstar fantasy. With voluminous curly blonde hair, a bright red lip, and an outfit of leather and leopard print, she’s firmly in her rockstar era. If you aren’t convinced, just wait until she strolls along an empty dirt road, where she’ll belt “Cherry, do you love me? Will you call my name?” from the top of her lungs.

“Artists

should be allowed

to be everchanging.”

“This rock and roll girl persona was extremely intentional. I can use my voice in a multitude of ways,” she says. “You can hear a huge difference between the music from Girlie Pop. The new stuff is just more naturally my voice. I’ve had a lot of people being like, ‘Oh, you should do music like this,’ but I’m a Broadway girl at heart.”

When the Chicago native released her debut EP in June 2024, she coined the subgenre Girlie Pop with cheeky, high-camp feminine lyrics, an addictive electro-pop beat, and an all-pink wardrobe. The tracks celebrate hyper-femininity and sexuality. In the erotic sapphic cheerleader track “Verse,” she chants “Me on top, we play skins, no shirts!” Whether it’s the self-love anthem “I’m Really Pretty” or emphasizing the importance of setting high standards in “Sugar,” her contagious pop sound and confident lyrics evoke the days of Paris Hilton—when duck nails, Juicy Couture sweatsuits, and skinny jeans were what made the 2000s the 2000s.

“My whole experience in Chicago was so formative,” she says, reflecting on her work. “I spent a lot of my time on the internet when I was blowing up for being goofy in Chicago. Being part of the drag and queer scenes there taught me how to be a good community member and how to be there for the people in my life.”

Her early 20s in Chicago were mainly spent at the well-known but now closed Berlin. The queer nightclub introduced her to her drag mother, Ramona Slick, and all her queer friends. It was when she got adopted into a drag family that she felt the freedom to explore the intersections between hyper-femininity and queerness.

“I’m so grateful I got to live that. And now being in LA, I really do miss the Chicago scene a lot, because I think it’s beyond special,” she says. “I credit it so much for giving me my confidence as a hyper-feminine lesbian and just who I am.”

Chicago’s vibrant queer nightlife introduced her to iconic performers who influenced her evolution as an artist and status as an ultimate it girl. Being young in the clubs, watching and befriending performers such as Kitty Banks, Angelíca Grace, and Shea Couleé helped shape the ways she could express herself. She credits Lady Gaga and her ever-evolving looks and sounds as a major influence. All these creatives—fearlessly expressing themselves and resisting the pressure to conform—have taught Chrissy what it truly means to be free.

“I credit watching them so much because when I first started making music and realized I had to go on stage, I was like, ‘I’ll wear my sunglasses and make myself look really cool behind the DJ booth,’ which is not me at all, mind you,” she laughs. “It was a moment where I was like, ‘Wait, pop stars can be drag performers. Pop stars can be musical theater girls.’ It immediately clicked, and my live performances became a million times better because I realized I could be me, and I got to be me through seeing these amazing performers.”

Before lighting up the stage with backup dancers and rhinestones, Chrissy first reached stardom on TikTok during COVID. In late 2022, she became one of the faces of “bimbo-tok,” where internet influencers reclaimed the stereotypical term “bimbo.” Her content usually featured her then-signature pink hair, paired with tiny outfits and a dramatized high-pitched voice. Whether it was making fun of men who referred to themselves as “alpha males,” twerking in front of an evangelical protester, or reminding her followers that being hot is a mindset, her witty blend of humor, politics, and criticism built her a massive fan base of loyal followers.

TikTok allowed her to express herself unapologetically and experiment with who she wanted to be. She was finding herself, letting people see her authentic, silly self. And while some loved it, some also didn’t.

“… it’s very reminiscent 

of real feelings I have

and real experiences 

seen through the lens

of a showgirl.”

“People who are hyper-feminine, queer, and goofy are smart. But with the whole bimbo thing, it was funny to be satirical and make a joke out of what other people were thinking of it,” she says. “I’ve evolved a lot since I was posting those videos. I agree with the things I was saying and doing, but I’m 25 now, and it’s time to go into another medium of entertainment. Overall, it was a celebration of queerness, showing up as yourself, and I wouldn’t be the girl I am today if I didn’t allow myself to show up the way I wanted to.”

Chrissy has made a profound impact on her fans by showing up for what she believes in. “At my shows, so many fans come up to me, and are like ‘You helped me come out, you helped me be myself,’” she says. “That was the point.” She isn’t afraid to use her platform to stand up for LGBTQ+ rights, call out dangerous Trump era orders, and clock toxic masculinity. In volatile times, it’s more important than ever for artists to take a stand. Whether it’s through platforms like TikTok, creating music, or other outlets, Chrissy urges her fellow creatives, especially those with big followings, to speak out for those who can’t.

“I grew up around such an amazing community in Chicago that deserves to be heard and seen and talked about. And so many people in marginalized communities are important to talk about,” she says. “I’m a girl who’s loud and has opinions, and I’m gonna carry those with me to my shows. I’m gonna carry those with me wherever I go. And I hope artists, as they continue to grow, stick by their morals. To be yourself is a political act. We have to credit all of the people that we reference, all of the people that we have taken and evolved ourselves from.”

From posting almost twice a day to posting once every two weeks and then taking a little break from the internet, Chrissy has taken the time to figure out who she wants to be. Now fully back online and navigating an industry that’s entirely new to her, she’s learning to trust her own voice over the noise around her.

“Artists should be allowed to be ever-changing. My new project is so weird, and I don’t know if many people will understand it right away. The way I am in love with this project, because I feel myself, I hear myself, I see myself, and I see younger me. I see 20-year-old me who’s being kooky online, I see 15-year-old me who just got her first lead role, I see eight-year-old me who was so beyond shy and could never comprehend this is who we are now,” she says. “I applaud myself for doing what I thought was right at the time. Listen to your gut, do what your gut wants, and even if you don’t get the result you necessarily want right away, your soul deserves to be fed.”

While fans anxiously await Nicole Vegas, she teases to GO, “Everything is Vegas themed. I have this crazy obsession with Las Vegas, in the sense where I feel connected to it because it feels like the rhinestone of America. She’s shiny, but she’s tacky as hell and DIY—she makes it work.”

It’s a sweet farewell to hyper-pop, dance-pop, electro-class sounds, and the bimbo-tok of it all. Chrissy has made it clear she’s still her same unapologetic self, just further evolved.

“It dives into a lot of vulnerability,” she says. “It is kind of like my alter-ego project, but it’s very reminiscent of real feelings I have and real experiences seen through the lens of a showgirl, which has been a better way for me to talk about my own feelings and experiences through another lens, in the way I do with theater and how I grew up.”

The superstar is bringing her new era home this June, when she will take the stage at Chicago Pride Fest. She hopes her presence on stage will inspire queer youth in the same way she was inspired at her first Pride. In November, she’ll bring the “Clam Casino” to the Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City. As long as there are shots of vodka and chocolate chip cookies backstage for her and her backup dancers, she tells GO she’s always ready to bring her fearless queer magic to the stage.