Emily Montes

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phin @doctorhomosex I'm making this thread and pinning it because of some recent events. 2 years ago, primarily me and some other friends in our collective "Sunligh" made a persona called Emily Montes that blew up. Someone is hijacking the Spotify pages and harassing me, here's a thread on it (1/?) 6:03 PM - Jun 5, 2022. Twitter for iPhone 55 Retweets 10 Quote Tweets 104 Likes 27 ↑ phin @doctorhomosex. 5h Replying to @doctorhomosex This started when I saw that a few songs were falsely uploaded under the Emily Montes name, if I recall correctly they were named "Rosebuds", "Stinky" and a (fake) collaboration with Lovely Peaches where in all 3 of these she pretends to be the persona to talk about... 1 27 20 phin @doctorhomosex. 5h ...obviously NSFW s--- like her p---- that i'm uncomfortable with. If you have any of the slightest familiarity with Emily Montes, you know that the character is only >5< years old, and it really f------ creeps me out that someone's doing this with my persona.

↑ RTH Emily Montes Emily Montes Album 1978 : Emily Rose CAR WAY =

SIMILAR TO Laura Les 100 Gecs 136K subscribers Emily Rose Emily Montes 2.72K subscribers

Singles & EPS Take Me Away (Remix) - Single Similar Artists SOPHIE

EPIC • 2020 Emily Montes Emily Montes Emily Rose KAS ↑ 10.0 BEST NEW MUSIC

Emily Montes 'Self Titled' After emerging on Twitter and drawing comparison to artists such as 100 Gecs and GFOTY, Monte delivers a personal and thought provoking performance on her debut album 'Emily Montes'. Although the album has a total running time of 4.45, Montes manages to deliver a cohesive, substantial body of work. With abrasive production, and heavy use of autotune, Monte clearly draws inspiration from A.G cook and the PC Music genre. The album leaves you with a sense of anticipation for what Montes will deliver next - each song deliciously interludes into the next abrasive hyper pop banger, revealing a simple yet effective narrative. The relevance of this album today becomes increasingly apparent as the album continues, with progressive and abrupt views on the COVID 19 pandemic on 'Emily Montes (Corona is crazy)' which is a simple but effective take, leaving the listener elated. For a debut - Montes delivers what can only be described as an electric and iconic performance. I am giving this album a 9/10

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About

Emily Montes, also known as Emily Rose, is a musician who rose to fame after her eponymous album Emily Montes was released in May 2020. The album features a series of 14 short and highly autotuned songs where the singer raps about being 5 years old, the COVID-19 pandemic and other life experiences. Montes' Bandcamp page notes that her debut "changed the scope of the hyperpop and meme scene forever," and the singer has been likened to other hyperpop musicians like 100 Gecs. However, there's also a theory that suggests Emily Montes is a fabricated persona created by a music collective named "Sunligh."

Background

On May 27th, 2020, Emily Montes released her eponymous album Emily Montes on Spotify, gathering over 1.5 million streams in over two years since its release. The album can be accessed via a July 16th YouTube ^[1] upload, with the first track (also named "EmiLy") gathering over 1 million views in two years (seen below, left). The most streamed track from the album on Spotify is "Take me away" with over 1 million streams. The track can also be accessed via YouTube upload,^[2] where it gathered over 240,000 views in two years (seen below, right).

Online Presence

On July 5th, 2020, Redditor^[11] DiscoSocialism posted a screen recording from Montes's album to the subreddit /r/PCMusic. The post gathered over 300 likes in nearly two years (seen below).

On November 22nd, 2020, Twitter^[10] user @crispypunani posted a tweet with a screen recording of the track "EmiLy," and gathered over 100,000 likes in nearly two years (seen below).

no because wtf is this? pic.twitter.com/tl16gdw45j

— ✯ (@crispypunani) November 22, 2020

Emily Montes and her album soon went viral on TikTok as well. The earliest known viral video to use her music is a post from TikToker^[3] @hangeenthusiast24 from August 22nd, 2021. The post gathered over 900,000 plays and 170,000 likes in over a year (seen below, left). Another early post using the singer's music is an August 30th post from TikToker^[4] @dj061608, who gathered over 190,000 plays and 30,000 likes in over a year (seen below, right).

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6999374698345680133

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7002246267585809670

On June 4th, 2021, TikToker^[8] @br00klyn_babyy posted a video of them playing an unofficially pressed vinyl of Emily Montes's album, gathering over 320,000 plays and 80,000 likes in over a year (seen below, left). On August 5th, 2022, TikToker^[9] @kebabinamm posted a video reviewing the album, gathering over 600,000 plays and 100,000 likes in two months (seen below, right).

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6969806413434522885

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7128517810313121029

Critical Acclaim

Montes was the topic of various pieces of cultural journalism in the months following her release, with Leo Krinsky writing for the Michigan Daily^[5] on October 7th, 2020, calling Montes's album "right in line with the trap-hyperpop sound that has been festering in the depths of the internet and is now coming to the surface of popular culture through artists like Charli XCX and 100 gecs" (seen below).

Created during the COVID-19 pandemic, each song is a small vignette that explores themes of loneliness, existential dread, complete and total arrogance and everything else that comes with being five years old in quarantine. In one of her songs titled "Emily Montes (Breakup),” she sings over a piano, “Laying in my bed / Voices in my head / A broken heart / I'm missing you." The next song, titled "Emily Montes (Corona is Crazy)" transports us to a trap beat where Emily raps "This virus is crazy / It's the end of the world! / Boom, Boom, Boom." As quickly as it starts, the song ends and "Frozen" begins, in which Emily asks, "I'm outside, it's frozen / But where is all the snow?" In just three songs that amass to 45 seconds, Emily investigates mental health, her broken heart and climate change (I think?). It is these disjunct and sometimes contradictory messages that make the album so impactful. So often during this strange time period, I have felt as though I couldn't control anything around me, and this album feels just like that. You never know what version of Emily you'll get next. She may be depressed, spirited, hopeful or angry. She may be completely neutral. She may drop a diss at Travis Scott and Chance the Rapper for no particular reason. She may just rap about how much she loves Roblox. You have no say. Emily runs the show.

Kenna McCafferty wrote about Montes for Office Magazine,^[6] noting the singer's subsequent ban from TikTok and Instagram, likely due to her presence violating the age requirements for both apps. McCafferty also attempts to analyze as to why Montes grew to fame the way she did despite her age.

Spotify Hacks

Emily Montes's Spotify suffered from various hacks between 2021 and 2022, with people uploading overtly sexual and offensive music under her name on the music streaming app. On February 9th, 2022, TikToker^[7] @xenarcaa posted a screen recording of one such song a hacker posted to Emily's Spotify.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7062700897280888110

It is unclear as to whether Emily can regain use of her Spotify account, and as of November 2022, she is not active on any social media platforms

Internet Persona Theory

There has been considerable discussion on the internet about Emily Montes being an entirely fabricated persona created by a music collective named "Sunligh." A now-deleted Twitter thread from user @doctorhomosex^[12] claiming to be the musical creators behind the name "Emily Montes" was posted on June 5th, 2022 (shown below). The user claims to have created Montes and discusses the hacks and illegitimate tracks posted to the Emily Montes Spotify page.

The thread accuses a person named "Jade," with the deleted Twitter account @bur_dine, of allegedly posing as a legal representative for Emily to Spotify, thereby locking the user and other members of their collective out of the account. These claims have not been substantiated as of November 2022.