Sofia Isella at Roundhouse

Sofia Isella at Roundhouse, London — 2026-06-04

Sofia Isella closed her Her Desire, The Nemesis tour at the Roundhouse with a performance that blurred poetry, theatre and collective ownership of the songs.

The Roundhouse was the final stop on Sofia Isella’s Her Desire, The Nemesis UK and European tour and the biggest London headline show of her career to date.

The last time she played the venue, she was opening for Tom Odell. Less than two years later, she returned to a packed room of fans who had followed her rise from internet discovery to one of alternative music’s most distinctive young voices. There was little doubt about who they had come to see.

Less than two years after introducing herself to a largely unfamiliar audience, Isella took to the stage in front of a room packed with fans who had watched her rapid ascent from social media curiosity to one of alternative music’s most compelling young artists. There was little doubt about who they had come to see.

The set opened with Out in the Garden, Hot Gum and Josephine, wasting little time in reminding the crowd why they had fallen for her music in the first place. Sofia’s songs have always lived somewhere between poetry, theatre and confession, and seeing them performed live only reinforces how difficult she is to categorise. Her writing is intelligent without feeling academic, emotional without becoming sentimental, and often far funnier than people expect.

The relationship between Sofia and her audience was impossible to ignore. She spent much of the evening moving through the crowd as naturally as she occupied the stage, blurring the line between performer and audience. A lyric sheet, a touch of the hand or a few shared seconds at the microphone was enough to leave some visibly emotional. At one point, following an audience request, she stepped into the crowd itself to perform Unattractive, dissolving what little distance remained between performer and fan. This was not passive fandom; it felt like collective ownership of the songs.

Sofia’s choice of instrument often shaped the character of a song as much as the arrangement itself. The violin introduced drama and unease, the piano drew attention to the emotional core of the writing, while the guitar gave many of the evening’s sharper observations extra bite. Each felt like another tool for storytelling rather than a showcase of musicianship.

Much of Sofia’s work examines modern life through the lens of young womanhood, exploring everything from power and vulnerability to identity, desire and self-worth. What makes her songwriting compelling is its curiosity rather than its certainty. Songs such as Man Made, Muse and Everybody Supports Women explore power, identity and expectation without reducing them to simple statements. There is frustration in her writing, certainly, but also humour, contradiction and an awareness that people are rarely as straightforward as the narratives built around them.

Sofia’s ability to move effortlessly between the heartfelt and the theatrical was evident throughout the night. During Evergreen Soldier, three audience members joined her on stage, including one dressed as a chicken. In another artist’s hands it might have felt like a throwaway joke. Here it felt entirely at home within a performance that never asked its audience to separate humour from emotion.

The Roundhouse audience was also treated to a glimpse of what comes next. Product of Public Domain received its live debut, while Vinegar offered another taste of unreleased material. Both landed confidently despite being unfamiliar to most of the room, suggesting that the creative momentum behind Something Is a Shell, released earlier this year, is showing no signs of slowing.

One of the night’s most memorable moments arrived during Black Friday. When Tom Odell joined her on stage, the symbolism was difficult to miss. Less than two years ago, Isella had been the support act on this very stage, introducing herself to an audience that largely belonged to him. This time, Odell was the guest. The loudest reactions of the night were reserved for the artist standing beside him.

By the end of the main set, the Roundhouse felt completely under Sofia’s spell. I Looked the Future in the Eyes, It’s Mine provided a fitting conclusion, although the inevitable encore of Hot Gum suggested nobody in the room was particularly interested in conclusions.

Sofia Isella writes as though she is in constant conversation with the world around her, questioning its assumptions, challenging its contradictions and occasionally finding humour in them. At the Roundhouse, those ideas landed with as much force as the music itself. What emerged over the course of the evening was not simply a talented songwriter or compelling performer, but an artist who has already built a world entirely her own.

Setlist

Out in the Garden / Hot Gum / Josephine / Cacao and Cocaine / Man Made / Muse / Star V / Dog’s Dinner / Evergreen Soldier / Product of Public Domain (live debut) / Vinegar (unreleased) / All of Human Knowledge Made Us Dumb / Black Friday (with Tom Odell on piano) / Above the Neck / The Well / The Chicken is Naked and Afraid / Unattractive (performed in the crowd following an audience request) / Everybody Supports Women / Us and Pigs / The Doll People / Sex Concept / Orchestrated, Wet, Verboten / I Looked the Future in the Eyes, It’s Mine

Encore

Hot Gum