The Purple List Interviews: 5 Things We Learned from Precious Pepala
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Precious Pepala is one of the UK’s most promising young talents, with her own special blend of dark pop that incorporates soul and rock influences.
The Sheffield-born songstress has already released a slew of impressive tracks that showcase her pop mastery, from ‘Eve‘, ‘Pls Cheat On Me‘, and her recent smash ‘Love Bombs‘. Furthermore, she has been officially chosen as one of our ‘Purple List’ picks for 2026, IndustryMe’s guide to rising stars in music.
Precious sat down with Co-Editor Kloe for a fascinating interview about everything from her love for rock to her new EP ‘Rosey‘. You can watch the interview later this week. But before you do, here are five things we learned from the superstar-in-waiting.
Precious pushes her boundaries when writing
Whilst writing songs comes as second nature to many musicians, delivering consistent-quality records is a whole other feat. Feeling immense pressure from a fast-moving industry that could easily forget about her, this singer stayed on top of her game with her prolific releases.
Don’t be fooled, this wasn’t as easy as she made it look. “I’ve never written a project all in one consecutive like period of time and had to write a song, record it, mix, master, write the next song, record it, mix, master.”, she admits. “It was very stressful, but very rewarding in the end.”
This is an artist who is proud of her progression
Most of us cringe thinking about anything we did at 16, but Precious Pepala has many things to be proud of. Her first release includes songs that are still on rotation for me today. Thereby, I had to ask her how she was so self-actualised at such a young age, and how she feels about her earlier records now.
“You see people like Billie Eilish, these child prodigies, and I [thought at the time] I have to have my moment by a certain age.” Nowadays, though, the pressure is off, and she can hear how much she has progressed. “I’m proud of my younger self.”, she grins.
She defies expectations
This songstress is very proud to be from Sheffield, rubbing shoulders with big-time legends like Arctic Monkeys and Bring Me The Horizon.
However, she’s quick to add that no one looks like her. Being a young, Black woman making alt-pop is different from anything that Sheffield has offered up before. In fact, she has been made fun of for deviating from R&B. “It’s okay to be weird, it’s okay to be different.”, she tells me.
Precious writes songs to heal herself – and her fans
Penning her emotive records is a therapeutic process for many artists, and this is no different for Precious. Most of her records have a dark, hurt, or pained element to them, and she admits this is something that comes naturally. Writing her incredibly moving song ‘Bubble Wrap‘ was as personal as it gets. She felt writing that song was ultimately necessary to release a negative feeling that was looming large in her life.
When fans approach her to talk about what her lyrics meant to them, it really hits home. “Hearing other people say it helped them to heal always helps me reflect.”
She’s ready for more success
After praising Precious for her red carpet fits and attending award shows, the singer humbly tells me that it’s all still a little terrifying. It isn’t until these ‘real-life’ happenings occur that she realises how far they have come. That also extends to interactions with fans. “It feels very rewarding, seeing someone in real life out of their mouth saying, ‘I love your music’. It’s just a different feeling; it’s so crazy to me. It’s really exciting times.”
Precious Pepala is on Instagram, X, and TikTok. You can stream her music below, or buy her new EP, ‘Rosey‘. Read more Purple List articles here, or watch the full interview here later this week.
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