Who is Alice Phoebe Lou? From Kommetjie to Berlin's streets and near stardom

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October 18, 2026

Watch the official video for "She" on YouTube

Music · Cape Peninsula to Berlin

Who is Alice Phoebe Lou?

She grew up in Kommetjie, a village on the Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula, sang for coins on the streets of Berlin, said no to the record labels that came calling and came within one step of an Oscar nomination. This is the story of Cape Town's most stubbornly independent voice, with three songs to start on.

Kommetjie
→
Amsterdam
→
Berlin
→
The world

▶ Listen to three songs Follow the journey

Photo: Schorle, Rudolstadt-Festival 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0

Alice Phoebe Lou was born on 19 July 1993 and grew up in Kommetjie, under the Slangkop lighthouse on the Cape Peninsula's Atlantic coast. Her parents are documentary filmmakers; she went to a Waldorf school and took piano and guitar lessons as a child.

She first earned money fire dancing during a summer in Paris at 16. After finishing school in 2012 she came back to Europe on a gap year with her fire poi and paid her way by fire dancing in the squares of Amsterdam. In Berlin the fire earned her almost nothing, so she picked up her guitar and sang on the street instead. Berlin became her base, she has lived there since she was 19, the street was her first stage, and independence is the rule she has kept ever since.

A decade later she has six studio albums, an Oscar shortlisting and, in 2026, opening slots in Europe's arenas for Laufey and Olivia Dean, and she still runs her career on her own terms. Here is how she got there.

01 · The journey

From a fishing village to the edge of fame

Eleven stops, from the Cape Peninsula to arena stages. Swipe, or use the arrows.

1993 to 2012

Kommetjie

A Cape Peninsula childhood

Raised by two documentary filmmakers in Kommetjie, with a Waldorf school and piano and guitar lessons. At 16 she spent a summer in Paris and first earned money as a fire dancer.

2012

Amsterdam

Fire dancing for the fare

A gap year in Europe after school. She earned her travel money fire dancing in Amsterdam's squares.

From 2013

Berlin

The busker

Fire dancing barely paid in Berlin, so she switched to singing with a guitar at S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations and in parks. Busking became her living and her training ground.

6 September 2014

TEDxBerlin

The performance that travelled

After her TEDxBerlin performance, record labels made offers. She turned them down to stay independent.

April 2016

Cape Town & Berlin

Orbit

Her debut album, produced by Matteo Pavesi and Jian Kellett-Liew and recorded between the two cities she calls home.

December 2017

Hollywood

"She" and the Oscar shortlist

"She" was chosen for the documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story and shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The nomination did not follow, but the world had heard her.

8 March 2019

Stinson Beach, California

Paper Castles

Produced by Noah Georgeson at Panoramic House, a residential studio above Stinson Beach, with a song called "Fynbos", the name of the Cape's native shrubland. The same year she started the duo Strongboi.

2021

On tape

Glow and Child's Play

Two albums in one year. Glow, out on 19 March, was recorded on tape with producer David Parry; Child's Play followed on 2 December without any announcement.

7 July 2023

Self-released

Shelter

Her fifth studio album, made, like the four before it, without a major label behind her.

24 October 2025

La Pot Studio, Berlin

Oblivion

Her sixth album and the first she produced herself, with co-producers Ziv Yamin and Dekel Adin, released through the independent Nettwerk Music Group.

2026

Arenas

Near stardom

Opening for Laufey in European arenas in February and March, a headline Oblivion tour of North America in April with nights at New York's Webster Hall and Los Angeles' The Wiltern, then Olivia Dean's arena dates in London, Berlin, Paris and beyond in May and June.

02 · Listen

Three songs, three chapters

The song that reached Hollywood, the single she released as the pandemic began, and the title track of her newest album. Tap a cover to play it here; nothing from YouTube loads until you do.

Plays from YouTube

Track 01 · The breakthrough

She

Studio version 2018 · from Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

A live version of "She" released in 2017 drew more than two million plays on YouTube, was used in the documentary about the actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr and made the Academy's shortlist for Best Original Song. This studio version, with a video directed by Natalia Bazina, premiered on NPR in February 2018.

Plays from YouTube

Track 02 · The do-it-yourself single

Witches

Single, 13 March 2020 · not on an album

Recorded on one-inch tape in producer Ziv Yamin's living room. She filmed the video herself with Jascha Müller-Guthof and Lucian Barnard.

Plays from YouTube

Track 03 · The producer

Oblivion

Title track · Oblivion, 24 October 2025

The title song of her sixth album, the first she produced herself, recorded at La Pot Studio in Berlin. The video is directed by Jabu Nadia Newman.

03 · On her own terms

Why "near" stardom?

6studio albums, Orbit (2016) to Oblivion (2025)
2014TEDxBerlin, and the label offers she turned down
2017Oscar shortlist for "She"
2026arena support for Laufey and Olivia Dean

By most measures Alice Phoebe Lou has already arrived: six albums, an Oscar shortlisting, headline tours and arena audiences. What she has not done is the thing the music industry treats as the final step, signing to a major label and handing over the controls.

The labels came after TEDxBerlin in 2014. She said no, and has built every stage of her career since then on the same refusal.

That choice explains the shape of her story. Growth has come from the street outwards, one audience at a time, rather than from a marketing budget; her records are made the way she wants, on tape, in friends' studios and living rooms and, with Oblivion, produced by herself. It is the slower road, and the reason the word "near" still belongs in front of "stardom", by choice as much as by chance.

For Cape Town she remains a local story with a long reach: a Kommetjie girl who learnt her craft on the pavements of another city and called a song "Fynbos".

04 · Questions

Frequently asked questions

Where is Alice Phoebe Lou from?

She is South African and grew up in Kommetjie on the Cape Peninsula, south of Cape Town. She has lived in Berlin since she was 19.

Was "She" nominated for an Oscar?

No. In December 2017 "She", from Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, was on the Academy's shortlist for Best Original Song, but it was not among the final nominees.

Is she signed to a record label?

She turned down the label offers that followed her 2014 TEDxBerlin performance and released her first five albums herself. Her 2025 album Oblivion was released through Nettwerk Music Group, an independent label.

How many albums has she released?

Six studio albums: Orbit (2016), Paper Castles (2019), Glow and Child's Play (both 2021), Shelter (2023) and Oblivion (2025). She also fronts the duo Strongboi.

Where should I start listening?

Start with the three songs above, then play Paper Castles from beginning to end; its song "Fynbos" is the one most rooted in the Cape.

Sources

Wikipedia: Alice Phoebe LouBirth date, Kommetjie, family and school, gap year, TEDxBerlin on 6 September 2014, albums, Strongboi
cafebabel: Alice Phoebe Lou, Berlin's best-kept secret, 11 June 2015Fire dancing in Paris and Amsterdam, the switch to guitar in Berlin
Paris-Soweto: Alice Phoebe Lou, 23 June 2015Fire dancing in Amsterdam's squares
Wikipedia: Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story"She" on the December 2017 Best Original Song shortlist
Berklee: Alice Phoebe Lou and L.A. SalamiOrbit, the live and studio versions of "She", NPR premiere
NPR: Alice Phoebe Lou dives deep in the ethereal "She" video, 22 February 2018The studio version and its video
Big Hassle: Alice Phoebe Lou biographyPaper Castles at Panoramic House, California
Rock At Night: Glow, March 2021Release date and producer
Northern Transmissions: Alice Phoebe Lou, "Dusk", 4 December 2020Glow on tape with David Parry; "Witches" on one-inch tape with Ziv Yamin
Nettwerk: Alice Phoebe LouOblivion, 24 October 2025, self-produced at La Pot Studio with Ziv Yamin and Dekel Adin
Far Out: Oblivion reviewSelf-produced, recorded in Berlin
Wikipedia: A Matter of Time TourLaufey's European arena dates, 18 February to 9 March 2026
Wikipedia: The Art of Loving LiveOlivia Dean's 2026 tour and its support acts
FEMMUSIC: Alice Phoebe Lou, Oblivion and tour dates, 24 October 2025North American tour, April 2026, with Webster Hall and The Wiltern
YouTube: "She", "Witches" and "Oblivion"Official videos and their credits
Wikimedia Commons: Alice Phoebe Lou at the Rudolstadt-Festival, 2019Photo by Schorle, CC BY-SA 4.0

Source: Wikipedia, cafebabel, NPR, Nettwerk and the official videos · Last refreshed 18 October 2026

This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed and verified by humans.

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