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B i o g r a p h y
(by Marcy Donelson)
Indie singer/songwriter Blondshell balances intimate, confessional songwriting
with a steely alt-rock sound that underpins conveyed emotions. She emerged with
a string of singles in 2022, beginning with "Olympus," which collected millions
of streams before the end of the year. After signing with the Partisan label,
Blondshell released her eponymous debut full-length in 2023, and it landed on
Billboard's Top Current Albums chart. While the follow-up, 2025's If You Asked
for a Picture, was a little darker and more ruminative, it still featured the
casual humor that helps the songwriter stand out from much of the indie rock
crowd.
Born in New York City, Sabrina Teitelbaum began writing songs, taking voice
lessons, and performing in elementary school. She later taught herself piano,
and in high school she performed her own songs in school talent shows.
Meanwhile, she played in several bands, began playing open-mike nights, and
uploaded her first tracks to SoundCloud. Upon graduating, she moved to Los
Angeles to enroll at USC's Thorton School of Music, then dropped out after two
years to give a music career a go. She gained some attention under the pop alias
BAUM, releasing an EP and making her festival debut at South by Southwest in
2018. After breaking up with her partner, splitting with her manager, and losing
her mother within a short amount of time, she released a few more songs,
including the 2019 EP Curve, under the BAUM moniker, then admitted that she
didn't love the name or the direction her music was heading.
Teitelbaum was 24 when she debuted a 1990s alt-rock-influenced sound more to her
liking alongside more personal lyrics under the new banner Blondshell. A song
about addiction (both relationship and substances), "Olympus" was produced by
Curve's Yves Rothman (Kim Gordon, Bartees Strange) and self-released in June
2022. As it racked up hundreds of thousands of plays on streaming platforms, she
followed it with singles including "Sepsis" and December's "Veronica Mars,"
which marked her Partisan Records debut. Blondshell kicked off 2023 with a tour
in support of Suki Waterhouse, then delivered her self-titled debut album in
April. Produced by Yves Rothman and featuring the aforementioned singles, the
album was a critical success and found its way onto Billboard's Top Current
Albums Chart. That year, Blondshell also appeared on Barack Obama's year-end
Best Songs list, and she made her television debut on The Tonight Show Starring
Jimmy Fallen before adding an appearance on CBS Saturday.
In 2024, she released "Docket," a stand-alone collaboration with Bully, and her
feedback-fueled cover of "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel" was included on the
A24 compilation Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads Stop
Making Sens…. Meanwhile, Teitelbaum returned to the studio with Rothman for the
somewhat darker, more intense If You Asked for a Picture, an album that asked
questions without expecting resolution. It arrived on Partisan in May 2025. |