Pioneering producer Sophie Xeon (known as SOPHIE) has been honoured as the subject of a Google Doodle today on what would have been the icon’s 38th birthday.
The home page of Google shows a cartoon depiction of the artist – complete with the trademark red hair the producer became known for – and features a video honouring Sophie.
The short clip features Sophie’s song Immaterial, which includes lyrics like: ‘I was just a lonely girl / In the eyes of my inner child / But I could be anything I want.’
The song plays over a moving animation of the artist blasting off into the stars.
Considered one of the founders of hyperpop and among the most influential producers in the history of pop music, Sophie tragically died in 2021 after an accidental fall from a building in Athens but left behind a rich legacy.
For those unfamiliar with Sophie’s lasting influence on music, the close of Brat Summer (an album upon which the producer had immeasurable influence) is a perfect time to learn the basics.
The producer – who was trans and preferred not to be referred to by any pronouns, according to representatives – was an autodidactic musician who first began making music as a young child in Glasgow, Scotland.
In the 2000s, Sophie moved to Berlin, helmed the dance-pop group Motherland, and became immersed in the city’s electronic and dance music scenes.
There, the innovator honed the futuristic, otherworldly sound that became synonymous with the moniker SOPHIE.
Following a string of collaborations and releases, Sophie’s single Bipp broke through the noise and earned the producer critical acclaim and a quickly growing fanbase on independent sites like SoundCloud.
Sophie first collaborated with Charli XCX in 2015, building the foundations of what would become a long-lasting and fruitful artistic partnership that lived on beyond Sophie’s life.
Sophie produced many of Charli’s songs, including Vroom Vroom, After the Afterparty, Paradise, Trophy, Roll with Me, Lipgloss, Out of My Head, No Angel, and Girls Night Out.
The producer only released one studio album, Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides, in June 2018, which earned a nomination for best dance/electronic album at the 2019 Awards and made enormous waves in the pop world. Sophie was only the third trans femme in history to be nominated for a Grammy.
The album offered a sound so brand new and unfamiliar that many found it alienating, but for those able to see the vision, Oil was an astounding accomplishment that blew the ceiling off the possibilities of pop music.
Pitchfork remembers the album with appropriate grandiosity: ‘By complicating the naturalness of the human voice and corrupting established pop structures, SOPHIE also complicates the supposed naturalness of gender, which has always been inextricable from music. Her work is a sphere where will and impulse take priority over fate and legacy.’
Sophie’s sound is unwaveringly self-aware, intentionally subverting and occasionally exploiting pop cliches and patterns to create a brand new flavour of pop. The producer viewed music as textural and architectural, often likening projects to ‘latex, balloons, bubbles, metal, plastic, [and] elastic.’
Following this success, Sophie continued to work with Charli XCX andcollaborated with artists like Nicki Minaj and Madonna as well, pushing the unmistakable sound of Sophie into mainstream pop.
In 2022, Charli XCX dedicated her album Crash to their late collaborator, but Brat, the pop star’s hit 2024 album that launched her to a new level of fame, stands as the truest monument to Sophie.
Not only is the electronic, synth-heavy sound overtly referential to Sophie’s work, the song So I is about the late producer.
In the song, Charli sings: ‘Always on my mind (Every day, every night) / Your star burns so bright (Why did I push you away?) / I was scared sometimes / You had a power like a lightning strike.’
The lyrics continue: ‘When I’m on stage, sometimes I lie / Say that I like singing these songs you left behind / And I know you always said, ‘It’s okay to cry’ / So I know I can cry.’
Since the producer’s death, few of Sophie’s musical works have been made public. Notable releases include the Jlin collaboration ‘Jsloipnhie’ and productions for Hyd and Basside, but its recently been announced fans can expect a posthumous SOPHIE album soon.
The self-titled album from the artist was first hinted at with a cryptic video on the icon’s channel, causing many to speculate that new music was on the way.
Now that the album has officially been announced, a single called Reason Why featuring BC Kingdom and has also been dropped to the delight and shock of fans.
Sophie’s family announced the album on June 24 with a moving message that reads: ‘When we, Sophie’s family, took our first steps towards bringing this project to fruition we contacted the dear friends with whom she envisioned the album. We wrote, “We have been finding comfort in the music Sophie left us, it is a gift that we truly cherish as we try to find a way forward, with Sophie forever at the center of our worlds.”’
As Charli XCX continues to dominate the music world with rubbery pop sounds that are as danceable as they are intergalactic, fans continue to mourn the loss of a producer who forever reshaped the possibilities of pop, even to this day.