Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho, known professionally as Arlo Parks, is a British singer and poet from South London. Known for her singles "Cola" and "Black Dog", she was predicted as a breakthrough act of 2020 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2020.
Early life
Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho was born on 9 August 2000 and raised in Hammersmith, West London. She is half Nigerian, quarter Chadian and quarter French. Her mother was born in Paris. Marinho learnt how to speak French before she did English.
Career
2018–2019: ''Super Sad Generation'' and ''Sophie''
Parks made her musical debut when she released the song "Cola" through Beatnik Records in November 2018, and announced the release of her debut EP, Super Sad Generation. She told Line of Best Fit that the song is "a reminder that betrayal is inevitable when it comes to pretty people that think flowers fix everything." Olivia Swash wrote that the vocals on the song "flourish thanks to creative writing background, with her delicate tone taking centre stage against the gently plodding guitars and soft crackle of vinyl." As of November 2019, the song has amassed over three million streams on Spotify. Following the release of "Cola", Parks signed to Transgressive Records. She released the title track of her upcoming EP, Super Sad Generation, in January 2019. Robin Murray told Clash that the song portrays an "astute, nuanced creative control that also utilises word-play that speaks of youthful emotions spinning out of control." Her third single, "Romantic Garbage", was released in March 2019, before the release of the full four-track EP, Super Sad Generation in early April 2019. The EP was recorded in her home in South West London and an Airbnb in the Angel district of London. Parks performed her first-ever gig at The Great Escape in Brighton in May 2019, and has gone on to perform on the BBC Music Introducing stage at Glastonbury Festival in late June 2019, as well as at Latitude Festival in July 2019. She embarked on her first tour supporting Jordan Rakei on the UK leg of his tour in September 2019. Throughout the last half of 2019 Parks released the songs "George", "Second Guessing", "Sophie", and "Angel's Song" ahead of her second EP Sophie. Sean Kerwick told DIY that the five-track EP "oozes with the hang-ups of heartbreak and mortality; a topic that seems to overshadow many gen-Z musicians." Parks embarked on her first headlining tour of Europe in February/March 2020.
In May 2020, Parks released the singles "Eugene" and "Black Dog", which were well received during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, the latter of which became BBC Radio 1's Tune of the Week. In November 2019, Parks revealed that she is likely to release an album in 2020.
Artistry
In an interview in November 2019, Parks revealed that the creation process of her stage name was inspired by that of King Krule and the "park" which she visited with her friends. Parks revealed that she performs in the genres of Indie pop, bedroom pop, and indie folk.
Personal life
Parks is openly bisexual and is based in London. She completed her GCE Advanced Levels in early 2019. In her auto-biographical blurb on her Spotify profile, Parks claimed that she spent most of secondary school "feeling like that black kid who couldn't dance for shit, listening to too much emo music and crushing on some girl in her Spanish class."
