Admitting mid-interview that "fame isn't actually as happy as you'd think" was the most honest moment in rising US singer Eli's turn on NME's "The Cover" this week. Speaking to NME over Zoom one sunny September morning, she said she once believed that getting famous, landing endorsements, and earning recognition from idol-level figures would be her way out of capitalism and labor — only to realize it's not that simple.
Eli is this week's subject of "The Cover," NME's weekly feature spotlighting rising artists, with the interview written by Bailey Slater and photographed by Emma Drew Berson. To accompany the piece, Eli personally curated a playlist titled "The Goddess Of Grieving," now streaming on Spotify and Apple Music. Leaning moody in tone, the playlist mixes newer cuts from Charli XCX, Ariana Grande, and Phoebe Bridgers with classics from the likes of Aretha Franklin and Alice Coltrane.
Eli released her debut album "Stage Girl" in 2025, drawing attention with a Y2K-tinged pop sound paired with brutally honest lyrics — think "Marianne," which digs into past relationship trauma, or "Somebody I'm Not," which confronts gender dysphoria and self-performance as a trans woman head-on. That blend of raw candor and catchy melodies has steadily grown her fanbase, which now counts Troye Sivan, Doechii, and Zara Larsson among its ranks.
"Breaking through, reaching the level of recognition I craved, getting validation from people I admire, landing brand deals — I genuinely used to see all that as a way to escape capitalism, to escape having to work," Eli told NME. "I thought if I could just become someone like Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus, or Selena Gomez, I'd instantly be super happy — I could come out as trans, be the coolest person in the room, give most of my money away and just keep a little for myself to buy a nice house, get a wife, get a dog," she continued. "But now I realize there are bigger problems to solve, bigger conversations to have."
In a way, that sentiment echoes the playlist's title — "The Goddess Of Grieving" isn't just a soundtrack, but her way of channeling the mental and physical push-and-pull she's been going through lately, both into her songs and into the tracks she's chosen to share.
