Soko (singer)

Stéphanie Alexandra Mina Sokolinski was born on 26 October 1985 in Bordeaux, France to a Russian-Polish father and a French-Italian mother. She has Jewish ancestry and said that "half of my family died in concentration camps" during the Holocaust. She was raised Catholic "because they all denied their religion and what not", but she has stated that she feels "Jewish trauma". Her father died of an aneurysm when she was five years old. The incident had a profound impact on her, influencing her to become a vegetarian and later a vegan. This was followed by the deaths of all her grandparents and her godfather within the span of four years. She says that, as a result, she became "obsessed with death" She has used the nickname Soko for as long as she can remember. She left Bordeaux for Paris at the age of 16 to become an actress and began writing songs while taking acting classes at Cours Eva Saint-Paul; she says she "picked up songwriting" when she was 20 and taught herself how to play guitar, bass, and drums shortly afterwards. ==Musical career==

In 2007, Soko achieved a hit single in Denmark with a personal anecdotal song, "I'll Kill Her", after the radio program The Black Boy Scouts began to promote it. The song reached number one on the chart of the Danish version of the iTunes Store and was the number one song in rotation on radio. it later placed number nine in the Triple J Hottest 100 2007 music poll. The song was also popular in Belgium being played by Studio Brussel, Radio 1 and Pure FM, and in the Netherlands, being picked up by 3FM radio station. In October 2007 her music was featured in Stella McCartney's fashion show in Paris. She toured in the UK in late 2007 supporting M.I.A. on the KALA Tour. Since early 2008 she has also been played in Germany by 1LIVE, first only at night in 1Live Plan B but later, due to high demand, throughout the whole day. Sokolinski has self-released one EP Not Sokute, and collaborated with The Go! Team and Cornershop, the latter on a song called "Something Makes You Feel Like". She has her own record label called Babycat Records and is signed to Because Music in France. Sokolinski has had sold-out concerts in Scandinavia, Britain, and Australia. In March 2014, Soko appeared in the music video for the song "Jealous" by Canadian electro-funk band Chromeo. In 2015 "We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow" was also used in an episode of the American TV series Forever. Her second studio album, My Dreams Dictate My Reality was released in March 2015, with its first single "Who Wears the Pants??" released on 7 January. The Sonic Seducer wrote that the album was darker than the previous releases and called it a "female version of early The Cure discs". Soko collaborated with The Brian Jonestown Massacre on a song called "Philadelphie Story" for their album Musique de Film Imaginé, released in April 2015. In 2017, Soko collaborated with Residente on a song called "Desencuentro" for his debut solo album. In July 2020, Soko released her third studio album, Feel Feelings. == Acting career ==

In February 2010, Soko was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress for her role in ''À l'origine (English title In the Beginning''), directed by Xavier Giannoli. ==Artistry==

Musical style Soko sings primarily in English, which she attributes to the fact that she mostly listens to music in English. She expressed her dream of collaborating with the two bands' frontmen, Robert Smith and Morrissey, whom she called "my gods"; she also referred to Smith as her "living hero". Other inspirations include Conor Oberst, and was noted for its "demo-like rawness". On the other hand, her second album My Dreams Dictate My Reality was labelled as "hi-fi" new wave, goth-pop, Her lyrics were characterised as "biting" voice has been described as "throaty, confessional" and "girlishly high-pitch[ed]" with a "raspy edge". Approach to acting Soko finds roles that require physical challenges to be the ones she enjoys the most. For the film '' (2007), she trained in boxing for a year with French champions. For The Dancer'' (2016), she insisted on not having a dance double and she therefore trained eight hours a day for three months. She believes that acting helps her have more compassion for things that are unknown to her. == Personal life ==

Soko became a vegetarian after the death of her father when she was five years old. She explained that it made her realise what a dead body was and she "didn't want to eat anyone's mom or dad or any living creatures". In March 2012, she stated that she was bisexual, while she told W Magazine in March 2016 that "I've always been open with my sexuality, meaning I don't really care about gender". In June 2020, she explained that she now considers herself queer: "I called myself bisexual then. 'Queer' wasn't yet an option. And slowly I realised that dating women made me feel so much more like myself, less oppressed, more equal and more empowered." Soko briefly dated American musician Ariel Pink and they remained friends for several years afterwards. They collaborated on Pink's album Pom Pom (2014) and Soko's album My Dreams Dictate My Reality (2015). However, in April 2015, she described her professional and personal relationship with him as "really hard". Soko said that she "always knew she would be a single mom" and would have a "non-conventional family". She is raising her son with her partner Stella Leoni, whom she began dating in 2019. Having moved to Los Angeles in 2008, Soko moved back to Paris with her family in August 2022. == Discography ==

Albums EPs Singles Guest performances ==Filmography==