Claire Elizabeth Cottrill (born August 18, 1998), known professionally as Clairo, is an American singer-songwriter. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Carlisle, Massachusetts, she began posting music on the internet at age 13.
Clairo rose to prominence following the viral success of the music video for her lo-fi single "Pretty Girl" in 2017. She subsequently signed a record deal, releasing her debut EP Diary 001 (2018) with Fader Label. Her debut studio album Immunity (2019) received critical acclaim and spawned the singles "Bags" and "Sofia", the latter of which became her first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Cottrill's second studio album, Sling, was released in 2021. Upon its release, the album received critical acclaim and saw commercial success, debuting in the top 20 of the US Billboard 200.
Matthew Kellenberg of The Observer described Cottrill as "the voice for a new generation of pop singer-songwriters."
Life and career
Claire Cottrill was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Carlisle, Massachusetts. She is the daughter of marketing executive Geoff Cottrill and Allie Cottrill, a photographer and designer.
2011–2017: Early career
Cottrill began recording covers on her MacBook at the age of 13, beginning with a cover of a Maroon 5 song. In a 2015 interview with Rookie, she recalled of this first recording, “It took me hours to figure out if I wanted to post it on Facebook or not to even tell my friends that I’d made it. I was so nervous about it! I just closed my eyes and did it, and then I closed my computer and tried not to think about it.” She would also perform covers at local businesses including Blue Dry Goods. During this time, MTV contacted her to record a song to be used as background music for one of their shows, but the song was never used. She began posting music to Bandcamp under the names Clairo and DJ Baby Benz while attending Concord-Carlisle High School. She went on to post covers and songs in addition to DJ mixes of rap music on SoundCloud. She also posted three short films on an old YouTube channel, and maintained a second one where she would post covers in addition to short films.
She launched her EP Do U Wanna Fall in Love? in 2013 after releasing several home recordings. A few additional EPs, including Aquarius Boy, Late Show, Moth Girl, Metal Heart, and Have a Nice Day, came after this in 2015.
2017–2019: diary 001 EP
Clairo first drew wide attention in late 2017 when the video for her song "Pretty Girl" went viral on YouTube. The song was recorded for an indie rock compilation benefiting the Transgender Law Center. According to her, she recorded the track "using the resources around me which were pretty shitty. I used like a little keyboard that I had and I was really into '80s pop music — my mom is obsessed with it — so it kind of inspired me to do something like that." She has attributed audience interest in the video to YouTube's algorithm system. The video was quickly lumped into the growing genre of bedroom pop, and also became popular on vaporwave-centric Facebook groups. "Pretty Girl" had amassed more than 81 million views on YouTube by 2022. A piece written by Joe Coscarelli of The New York Times said that the work: "bridges both worlds, building on the coy, understated bedroom pop of 'Pretty Girl' and 'Flaming Hot Cheetos' toward sturdier numbers like '4EVER' and 'B.O.M.D.'".
Another video, "Flaming Hot Cheetos", was released a month before "Pretty Girl" on YouTube. It garnered 3 million views by July 2018. The success of "Pretty Girl" led to interest from major labels such as Capitol, RCA, and Columbia. Jon Cohen, the co-founder of The Fader, signed Clairo to the magazine's associated record label with a 12-song record contract and introduced her to Pat Corcoran, manager of Chance the Rapper. She became a client of talent agency Haight Brand near the end of 2017. After the success of "Pretty Girl", a number of social media users (specifically on discussion website Reddit) began claiming that Clairo was an "industry plant" who gained success through her father's nepotism. She denied the claims, calling them sexist. Writers for The Guardian and The Ringer also stated that her father's connections facilitated her record contract signing. In 2021 she spoke openly about the accusations, telling Rolling Stone, "I definitely am not blind to the fact that things have been easier for me than other people's experiences. It would be stupid of me to not acknowledge the privilege I had from the start to be able to sign somewhere where there's trust, to be able to sign a record deal that doesn't revolve around keeping myself afloat financially."