Sydney Rose – Esme Emerson
Soft-spoken indie pop wrapped in acoustic warmth and bittersweet honesty
Music will always be there for us—especially when we can’t express how we feel. Georgia-born and Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Sydney Rose writes for those moments.
Her songs feel like whispers in your ear—offering comfort, clarity, or reassurance. This intimacy has resonated globally, generating billions of TikTok views, hundreds of millions of streams, and critical acclaim, culminating in her I Know What I Want EP [Mercury Records].
“Even if I can’t say how I feel, I know my favorite songs can,” she says. “My goal has always been to relate to other people.”
Growing up in suburban Atlanta, Sydney developed a broad musical taste—Phoebe Bridgers, Bon Iver, Daughter, Conan Gray, Cavetown—and taught herself ukulele, piano, and guitar. She gained attention with a viral cover of “Turning Page” by Sleeping At Last, earning over 67 million Spotify streams and her first label deal at 18. That led to 2022’s You Never Met Me EP and 2023’s debut LP One Sided, featuring “You’d Be Stars” [feat. Chloe Moriondo]. Olivia Rodrigo was among those who took notice and invited her on tour.
By fall 2024, she had moved to Nashville, lost her label, but rediscovered her creative identity with the fan-favorite voice notes EP. “When I got dropped, I got back to who I am,” she explains. “Recording voice memos on my phone—that’s how I started.”
In that spirit, she wrote “We Hug Now” at the piano. Sparse and raw, it mourns a fractured friendship: “The world ended when it happened to me.” “I’d see her Instagram, and it looked like she was fine. I wasn’t,” she recalls. “I wanted to go back to simpler times.”
The song’s bridge went viral on TikTok—over 400,000 creations, 1.3 billion views, Top 15 on TikTok’s chart, Top 3 on Spotify’s US and Global Viral 50, and Top 10 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under Hot 100. It earned her a new deal with Mercury Records and led to the I Know What I Want EP.
Highlights include “dogs I pass on the street”, where soft chords support the line, “When I call my mom, I just try to be discreet, crying over dogs I pass on the street.” “I was terrified moving to Nashville,” she admits. “Even though it’s what I wanted.”
On “thank you for trying,” written in her closet, her voice barely rises above a whisper: “It’s the way you exist, the way that you kiss, makes me want to tell you I’m sorry.” “I’m scared I’ll push people away because I feel undeserving of their love,” she says.
“listen to the birds” offers uplift through gentle piano and guitar: “Go and change your perfume, you gotta let go of that version of you…listen to the birds.” Inspired by The Milk Carton Kids, she says, “It’s about needing reminders of home while feeling sad in a new place.”
Ultimately, Sydney Rose’s music is a mirror and a refuge. “I’m just like you,” she says. “I’m figuring out who I am, but I know what I want—to keep making songs and singing for people.”
