Taken from the Autumn 19 issue of Wonderland. Order your copy now.

I’m willing to guess there aren’t many artists who are in a group chat with their fans. Then again, a deep connection with her audience is of paramount importance to Lolo Zouaï – a quick search of her name and you’ll find countless fan accounts, most followed by Zouaï herself. “It’s something that I’ve been dreaming of my whole life,” the French-Algerian singer tells me. “It’s a very important relationship for me to have,” she earnestly explains – so much so that she regularly catches up with a select group of fans in a group chat called the “low riders”.

Moving to New York to work on music five years ago — “I heard that if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere” — the devoted fans are a recent byproduct. Zouaï produced songs in her room before working with different producers, but grew frustrated as she struggled to find her own sound. Relocating to Brooklyn, the 22-year-old met Stelios Phili, the producer behind songs by Young Thug, A$AP Ferg, and M.I.A.

High Highs to Low Lows, her debut album released in April, is intended as an introduction to Zouaï’s music. The record brings together the vibrancy of early noughties pop tracks (growing up, she was “obsessed with Destiny’s Child, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey”) and the slick R&B beats that Stelios is famed for, laced together with Zouaï’s sugar-sweet vocals.

Since then, the singer’s sultry track “Chain” has been featured on Euphoria, the Drake-produced HBO series that captured the anxieties and complexities of Generation Z. “I think my music has a cinematic feel to it, because a lot of times it goes through a journey,” she says, before resolutely deciding she’d best provide a soundtrack to a “dark, romantic film or a French film”.

My chat with Zouaï is sandwiched between a festival in South Korea the day before and another in Japan the following day. “There were a few people waiting for me at the airport when I landed,” she tells me, “and a few of them were also there when I left.” Dedicated fans far from home are a sure measure of success for any artist, but despite her rapid rise to adored status, Zouaï still has goals she’s determined to hit. “The possibilities are kinda endless when you keep working,” she says, with every intention to do so.