Photo by Marc Piasecki/WireImage
By many measures Theodora has already (semi) made it big. The 20-something French singer has a multi-million streamed hit in her pocket — “Kongolese Sous BBL” — translated that into multiple sold-out shows in Paris, and most recently made her fashion week debut with a front-row seat at Jacquemus‘ latest Menswear collection showing at Paris Fashion Week, alongside Tyla, Central Cee, Pamela Anderson, and more. Pulling up to the show in a pink convertible, a sleek croc-patterned skirt-suit set, and a blonde bob dyed to like leopard spots, her fresh face popped among the usual crowd of celebrities, spurring many in media (including me) to wonder “who was this girl?”
I’ve since streamed her wildly fun “Kongolese Sous BBL” a couple dozen times — a bombastic bouyon-influenced club banger with a wacky beat that one of my coworkers compared to “a SpongeBob robot” but supremely makes you want to shake ass at a dimly lit but crowded function. It’s got us thinking that, though Theodora’s still little known outside of her home country, she possess major crossover potential — or at the very least deserves to be on your radar.
Who is Theodora?
2025 may be her breakout moment but Theodora, born Lili-Théodora Mbangayo Mujinga in Switzerland, has been making music for a while. Her earliest release on Spotify, a trap-pop project called Neptune, dates back to 2021. And she’s since released two EPs, 2023’s Lili Aux Paradis Artificiels and Tome 2, and her 2024 album, Bad Boy Lovestory. In an interview with Vogue France, she says she’s been writing music since she was 16.
Her brother, Jeez Suave, serves as her main producer. Together, they’ve cobbled a vast expanse of sonic influences ranging from drum and bass, Creole folk music, Caribbean genres like bouyon, and whatever she picked up while living in Greece, Congo, and Reunion Island during her childhood. “Every time we arrived in a new country, as a good music lover that [my father] is, he immersed himself in local music, ” she told Vogue France. Of course, like any good pop music pupil, she also counts The Weeknd and Rihanna as influences.
Her big hit
Released in October, “Kongolese Sous BBL” went unexpectedly viral on French TikTok before becoming her signature hit. We get it: the energy is palpable and her songwriting is hilarious. For non-French speakers, a translated excerpt: “Even if sometimes I don’t make ends meet / It’s because of my fiak [ass], it moves my knees too far apart / And my big breasts often hurt my neck.”
Her latest album
Her sophomore album Bad Boy Lovestory is a sugary fizz of dance, electronic, dancehall, and more. It includes features from her brother, Australian rapper Zoomy, and Jahlys. I’d recommend starting with “Fashion Designa” and “Big Boss Lady,” a phrase that’s become her calling card.
