With her previous single, “SkiDay”, acclaimed songwriter Charlie Houston entered a new chapter, one that feels less like a reinvention and more like a return to self. The song arrived after several genre-blurring releases and a debut album, Big After I Die, that showcased her range. These days, Charlie has landed on a sound she calls ‘Tomboy Pop’, a raw, instinct-driven fusion of contrasts.

The ‘tomboy’ identity has long been a throughline in Charlie’s life. Growing up queer, she moved through the world with a bold, unfiltered confidence. As she got older, that identity became something more complicated, shaped by outside expectations and assumptions. With this new sound, Charlie looks to reclaim the word on her own terms.

She continues the exploration of ‘Tomboy Pop’ with the new single, “Ladylike”, as song that was written as “a response to the arbitrary gender norms placed on me growing up and feeling that there was never a need to categorize people’s gender in such a binary way,” explains Houston. “I believe everyone is a little bit masculine, a little bit feminine and I hope this song gives people the confidence to lean in any direction that makes them feel most like their self.”

Last year, Charlie Houston released her debut album, Big After I Die, a captivating 9-song journey through the uncertainty and beauty of self-discovery during life’s transitional phases. Since the release of the album Charlie has been nominated for a JUNO Award for Underground Dance Single Of The Year for her track “La Vérité” alongside Jesse Mac Cormack, and Brö; and opened for The Beaches at NXNE. The album also saw the track “Lewps” featured in the remake of I Know What You Did Last Summer.