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Cosmopolitan

Rachel Chinouriri on finding love, Florence Pugh and overcoming trauma

Reflecting on finding love with her boyfriend, Isaac, she breaks off mid-sentence. 'This is my song!' she says in astonishment, raising pencil-thin brows. We stare at each other for a split second, listening intently as the whistle hook of Chinouriri's 'It Is What It Is' comes drifting through the speakers. She laughs and covers her face, then regains her composure. 'It is what it is, what it is, is a problem,' she sings in a soft, bluesy whisper. Perched on the edge of a button-back chair, the 26-year-old singer-songwriter is as relatable as they come, immediately making me feel like a close girlfriend, complimenting my old-school dictaphone ('I feel like I want one of these, you've inspired me') and joking about her tendency to talk too much ('I'm quite good at yapping!'). Following her critically acclaimed debut album, What A Devastating Turn Of Events, and an epic run supporting Sabrina Carpenter on tour, the Brit-nominated star is reinventing the landscape of indie music on her own terms. 'I think a lot of me never thought that I would be able to survive and get to this moment,' she muses. 'So to be able to package all my trauma into something that I can then put out and be like, 'That is a past me that no longer exists, but I've turned into something beautiful,' I feel very grateful that I have that skill.' Born in Kingston in 1998, Chinouriri was raised in the Forestdale area of Croydon by Zimbabwean parents who moved to the UK to give their children a better education. The youngest of five, she was the only one of her siblings to be born in the UK. 'It was quite a conflict of cultures all within one house, which was a blessing and a curse. But I see it more like a blessing now, being culturally rich.' The family home was 'very Zimbabwean, very African', which she loved. But navigating an English neighbourhood was difficult, especially as the only Black family on the street. 'I think I struggled with the mix of the two,' she recalls. Chinouriri was also the only one in her family who didn't speak her parents' native language, Shona, and noticed that when they left the house, they'd switch into quote, unquote, 'proper English accents', she says. 'So it was like, quite a weird cross of, 'Which one should I be? And what am I more like?'' Chinouriri's early musical education was a tapestry of diverse influences. Her family would sing church songs and play gospel, but it wasn't acknowledged that music could be a job. She wasn't allowed to listen to anything that wasn't Christian music, either. 'So when my parents would go to work, my siblings would play Channel U, MTV, anything, and I'd listen to music through that.' She immersed herself in the sounds of Labyrinth, Coldplay, Daughter, Florence + the Machine, James Blake and South African a capella group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. 'I just f*cking love the harmonies that they did,' she enthuses. And Chinouriri saw her own image in Black British female musicians such as Keisha Buchanan of the Sugababes, Shingai Shoniwa of the Noisettes, Skin from Skunk Anansie and Joan Armatrading. 'Without seeing these people in the industry, I don't know if I would have ever pursued music in the same way, because I'm like, 'Oh, there are people who look like me.'' Much like her songs, which blend irresistibly catchy melodies with heartfelt reflections on love, loss and identity, Chinouriri is deep but unafraid to sparkle. She's charming and self-assured, giving thoughtful responses in between sips of camomile tea. But it has been a long road to build this confidence. Chinouriri describes being violently bullied at secondary school. '[I was] getting spat on and called the n word. I had 'monkey' chanted at me when I was 15. Just horrible stuff. I think I blacked out a lot of that time, minus the parts that really affected me. I think being spat on is one of the most dehumanising experiences you can ever have, no matter who you are or who does it. It makes you feel like rubbish.' The day after that incident, she listened to Fix You by Coldplay, who remain her favourite band. 'When I was getting bullied, their music genuinely saved my life.' Throughout it all, Chinouriri's parents, who fought as child soldiers in Zimbabwe's war for independence against England had her back. 'I think when you're raised in that way or you've grown up in a country of war, things are very structured and disciplined; you're fighters, you don't give up on anything.' She gives a grim chuckle. 'When I was, like, done with everything, they said, 'We promise you, it could be worse.'' Even so, there came a point when Chinouriri decided to take matters into her own hands and applied to a new school with the encouragement of two Black friends.'I think I forged a signature to get into it,' she jokes. After getting her mum's permission, she moved to a predominantly Black and POC comprehensive in South London that offered a totally new experience. 'It was just such a melting pot of people who I actually related to more on a cultural basis, and I felt more seen. I had far more friends.' To this day, her high-school bullies will comment on her TikTok. 'I just find it quite funny that now they're like, 'Oh, we went to school with her.' And I'm like, 'Oh, you were the people who made me not want to be on the planet any more.'' When she was younger, her mum would remind her that her bullies were deeply miserable people. 'Being in the place I am in now, knowing what they're up to through other people telling me stuff, I'm like, 'Oh, yeah, they were quite miserable, and just laid it in on me.'' She flashes a smile. 'I'm glad I never stooped to their level, because the end result is, I'm speaking about them in Cosmopolitan.' When I next meet Chinouriri on her Cosmo cover shoot, she's fizzing with energy. Dressed in a pink fishnet bodycon dress and futuristic sculpted platforms, she pouts, clicks and shimmies right up to the camera lens. 'This is one of my favourite songs,' she exclaims giddily, singing along to Beyoncé's 'Pure/Honey' while throwing ballroom shapes. A few moments later, Chinouriri points a metallic nail skyward as she hits the high notes on Charli xcx's 'Sympathy Is A Knife.' When she stops twirling, she asks to 'have a little looksie' at the visuals. 'Gorgeous! Stunning! Fun! That background is insane,' she pauses. 'So this is gonna be out and about?' Everyone nods. 'I'm gonna buy, like, 20! When she was 14 years old, Chinouriri underestimated her talents. 'I think deep down, I've always been like, 'I want to sing.' But because I was blocked by shyness, I'd be like, 'Oh, I'm not gonna do that.'' At school, a supportive GCSE music teacher called Mr Coke encouraged her to apply to the prestigious Brit School, where famous alumni include Adele and Amy Winehouse. 'He kept saying, 'You are so talented, you need to give it a go.' I owe him quite a lot, actually. Shoutout to Mr Coke.'' She gained a place to study musical theatre, and once through the doors, she flourished. 'It was almost, like, a perfect mix of all people, but also everyone was slightly weird, including me, which I kind of loved,' she recalls. 'I was allowed to almost rebirth myself. I went with colourful braids, different hairstyles. I was wearing makeup for the first time ever, I was just dressing however the f*ck I wanted every single day. And I think Brit School gave me confidence and reassurance.' Chinouriri then began uploading her music to SoundCloud using her mum's laptop. 'I'd be recording my beat on the worst microphone I could find online,' she jokes. In 2018, her hit single 'So My Darling' was played on BBC Introducing on Radio 1, and she signed to Parlophone. But just as her career was taking off, the pandemic derailed her plan to do a run of shows. 'I had crippling anxiety at the time,' she remembers. While the world was locked down, she leveraged her social media skills, releasing an acoustic rendition of 'So My Darling', which went viral on TikTok and now soundtracks over 100,000 videos on the platform. By 2022, tired of being continually typecast as an R&B or soul singer, she had another viral moment when she posted about her fight to be recognised as an indie artist. It was inspired, she tells me, by a demoralising meeting with a music executive. 'I walked into a studio and this guy was like, 'Rachel, I love everything you do. You're amazing. You're a star. I'm a huge fan of your songs.' He had all my demos.' He then proceeded to introduce her as 'Rachel Chinouriri, the next R&B soul superstar' to a rapper visiting the studio. 'I remember just being so quiet, and when he walked out, I think I almost left the session. In that moment, I was so angry.' The post 'flipped a lot of things' and Chinouriri began to see a genuine commitment from companies to help change how she was being categorised. For the first time in her career, she hit a million monthly listeners on Spotify. 'I was like, 'Woah, [after] being put in the right categories, suddenly a million people have access to your songs!' Those were the moments when everything started to go…' she gestures upwards and exhales. 'So, yeah, I think that skyrocketed.' It's no surprise Chinouriri has taken off. Not only can she craft a catchy hook, but she's also genuinely accessible, sprinkling her songs with intimate confessions that feel like a voice note from your best friend. However, changing perceptions of indie, a historically white genre, is an ongoing journey. When Chinouriri released her debut album, which showed her standing outside an estate adorned with English bunting, people assumed it was a celebration of the flag. 'As soon as people saw the flags, they were like, 'Britpop''. While she loves British bands, such as Blur, Oasis and Arctic Monkeys, she is clear-sighted about her musical identity. 'I'll always call it alternative indie pop, because I've never really wavered out of those brackets.' She's also found community with other Black British musicians in the genre, such as Cat Burns, who she met at Brit School. 'We've both kind of had similar journeys, but definitely have spoken about the hardships of being Black in the industry together quite a bit, and we both can really relate to it,' she says. 'I'm glad that we're both at the other end of it now.' Last year, they collaborated on 'Even', a song examining the harmful double standards that Black women face in the music industry. 'It's therapeutic in a way, but hopefully it also allows other indie girls to feel really seen and understood, and to not hesitate trying to go for their dreams.' Chinouriri is also determined to reclaim her Britishness. 'I'm so aggressively British, culturally, it's mental. And, you know, there are so many British people who look like me and are POC, and they're so English and British. And we need a few more of them in the public eye.' Taking pride in her identity has been a challenge, because of how the country has – and still is – mistreating Black people and POC, but she is keen to spotlight the Black British experience. 'You look at all these British houses and English houses, and they're full of so much culture, people of colour, different countries, different ethnicities. And a lot of, let's say, racist English people, forget that this country is built off the back and bones of a lot of Black people and POC, and we're here to stay. A lot of the culture is influenced by it. We should accept and absorb it and understand the cultural impact it has. To try to deny that would not make Britain what it is.' Momentum is building for Chinouriri right now. In January, she received two first-time Brit nods for Best New Artist and Artist of The Year. 'I cried for about three to four hours and I woke up with a headache,' she says emphatically. 'It was quite dramatic.' Things got even more surreal when fellow Brit School alum Adele, who gave a shoutout to Chinouriri during her Las Vegas residency, sent her a bouquet of pink roses. 'I wrote her a letter saying that if she wants to go for a cup of tea or a wine, I feel like me and her would have a good kiki.' Chinouriri's famous fans also include Sophie Turner, who posted the lyrics from 'All I Ever Asked' on her Instagram Stories in the wake of her split from Joe Jonas in December 2023, and she's also friends with Cosmo cover star alums Beabadoobee ('she's very, very sweet') and Raye ('so amazing and lovely'). Chinouriri's newfound stability is also allowing her to focus on what she wants to achieve artistically. In August 2024, she was forced to withdraw from a support slot on alt-pop star Remi Wolf's US tour due to the financial strain of touring. It was important for her to be 'brutally honest' with her fans, nicknamed The Darlings, about the realities of the music industry. 'Even behind the scenes, I work f*cking hard and when things start to not go the way that I want, it tends to not really be my fault,' she explains. 'Rather than saying 'due to unforeseen circumstances', I said, 'I physically can't afford it and I'm going to try everything I can to come on tour.'' But much like Chinouriri's talent for alchemising pain into power, she figured out a plan to get to America. The result is the All I Ever Asked For Was A North American Tour. 'I'm very excited to see where it goes,' she smiles, noting that her biggest following is in America. 'I speak to American fans all the time online. The African American and Black American communities really helped me go viral on TikTok in 2020. I owe them a lot.' For now, Chinouriri is taking the time to be present. She appreciates the small things in life: her mental health, connecting with her fans, going to HMV and seeing her vinyl on shelves. 'All I've learned through the struggles of everything is I am authentically myself because of this.' As long as I make sure that every time I am allowed to present myself that I'm bringing the best forward, I'm like, 'That's my top priority.' And putting my fanbase first is my number one.' Photographer Blacksocks; Stylist Shannon Kelsey Ann; Makeup Georgia Hopeusing Danessa Myricks; Hair Shamara Roper at Arch the Agency; Nails: Tinu Bello at Arch the Agency; Photo Assistants; Alex Sievers, Isabella Armora; Fashion Assistants; Claudia Vargaz Fernandez, Matilde Raposo; Art Director Alex Hambis; Editor in chief Claire Hodgson; Acting Entertainment Director Nicola Fahey; Entertainment Editor Christobel Hastings; Video Lead Meg Beattie; Production Beverley Croucher