ZORA Shares New Single Ahead of Album Release This Friday

Minneapolis-based trans artist, producer, singer, and rapper ZORA (she/her) will release her long-awaited self-produced album BELLAdonna this week. Now she shares one final, utterly ecstatic teaser of the forthcoming record, entitled “sick sex.”

Lacing hip-hop harshness with pop catchiness, ZORA conjures ecstasy amid tumult on “sick sex.” As a way to reckon with a lifetime of her own personal horrors that include familial sexual assault, violence and exploitation, ZORA created BELLAdonna, a revenge concept album and tale of personal transformation, that follows a scorned supernatural alter ego - Belladonna - as she aims to avenge all harmed women.

On “sick sex,” Belladonna’s narrative arc is complete, as she leaves behind her days of vengeance and pivots toward love and healing— an allegory for ZORA’s own history with sexual assault. 

BELLAdonna marks ZORA’s entry into the storied Black gothic horror canon (influences include the horror films Nosferatu and Ms. 45, and persona-driven albums such as Tyler, the Creator’s IGOR and Beyoncé’s I Am… Sasha Fierce). To tell Belladonna’s story and, by proxy, her own, ZORA leans into fearsome, abrasive production and vocal performances that turn from inviting to sneering on a dime. The music, a sea change from the atmospheric and spacious breakout debut Z1, conjures Belladonna’s rage-filled spirit and grants ZORA a much-needed personal exorcism. It’s at once a stark left-turn and ZORA’s most compelling work to date by an order of magnitude. 

BELLAdonna will be out this Friday, January 17th via Get Better Records - pre-order now HERE. 

Photo Credit: William Hawk