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You’d be doing soul-pop songstress Sophia Galaté a grave disservice by trying to confine her to one singular expression. A businesswoman well-versed in touring, marketing, and artist development by day, a superstar ablaze by night, she is equal parts brilliant and creative. Her magnificence has taken form as a genre-bending catalog that explores the depth of love and self-discovery, headlining sold-out shows across cities like LA, New York, Chicago, and London.

She’s now ready to formally introduce herself to the world, as her debut album For My Own Entertainment is slated for release October 24. Accompanied by an immersive pink-coded world, the project promises to encapsulate the delicacy of femininity, living a life that orbits around your own pleasure first and foremost.

OnesToWatch got a chance to connect with Sophia Galaté surrounding the release of her debut for a deeper look at her multidimensionality and the critical role pink plays in the era she now embarks on. 

OnesToWatch: As someone with such powerful vocals, who were the artists you grew up listening to that inspired you to pursue music?

Sophia Galaté: Etta James, for sure. My dad played a lot of Motown around the house, so I grew up listening to Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, and all those classic bands from that era. Then when I got to high school, it was a lot of Adele.

Your aura is drenched in femininity. How do you tend to your Divine Feminine on a day-to-day basis?

I really feel like it’s just taking care of my body, especially my brand and the content that I post. When I’m dressed up and I wear pink and feel like a confident woman, that’s me embracing my feminine energy. But when I’m home and not in glam and I’m not performing, I’m taking care of my body. I love to exercise, I love to do a lot of self-care things, skin care, taking baths. And just being in touch with myself.

As someone who also finds pink to be their power color, talk about your spiritual connection to the color.

Pink has been my favorite since I was a kid, and as I’ve gotten older, even before I was really pursuing my artistry, I’ve always felt like pink was a weird thing to be obsessed with as an adult, because it seems like such a young kid color, but being an artist has given me the greatest excuse to put pink everywhere. I feel like the shade of hot pink I’ve chosen in this era is just very fun. I wanted to express myself in a super fun way and less serious.

Your catalog is so thoughtfully full of feeling. What’s your songwriting process like? Is it a cathartic experience?

I love this question because I just had a realization about this. My songwriting process is very sporadic. I’m not the type of artist who is constantly writing music all the time. I used to give myself a really hard time for that because so many people in music suggest that you need to be writing songs every day, you need to be in sessions every week, and I don’t really work like that. I’m somebody who really only writes when I’m going through something, and I know a lot of people advise against that, but I’m certain that’s what makes my music so relatable. When I perform and people come and talk to me after the show, they tell me that every single song is so relatable, and the reason why it’s relatable is because I always write when I’m going through something in real time, so these songs really are like my journal entry. It’s very hard for me to write when I’m not really experiencing something deep, so that’s why all of my songs are just very real.

How does your built experience behind the scenes bleed into who you are as an artist and performer?

It bleeds into it so much. I feel like I’m just one of the most self-sufficient artists. I also know the industry so well, working in it for so long, which is a blessing and a curse because sometimes it frustrates me if things may not go my way, and I know exactly why they’re not going my way. Still, I feel really confident and grounded because I have that perspective, and it’s helped me build a really strong system around my artistry.

On the heels of your debut album, talk about the inception of For My Own Entertainment and why it felt like the right body of work to serve as your debut. 

The title For My Own Entertainment is a phrase that I always felt myself saying because I have ridiculous stories about my life. I always am texting my friends like “I just go on these dates for my own entertainment,” and I’m just super spontaneous, and thus I always have good stories. I always knew that I wanted to name my album For My Own Entertainment, even before I had an album to name. I don’t know why it felt like the right body of work. It was just all the songs that I've written over the past couple of years, and I thought about it for a while, whether it should be a full-length album or an EP. Sometimes it felt too soon to have a full-length album, but these songs really felt right. Each song captures a different emotion and experience, and releasing them now clears space for me to create something new from where I’m at today.

What’s been the most surreal part of your journey through stardom thus far?

Definitely those full-circle moments from when I worked behind the scenes and now I’m on the artist side. For example, when I used to work in touring, I was an assistant to an agent, and I used to send out emails to managers and promoters about other artists’ shows. Now, I’m on the other side of it, getting those same emails for my shows. Some of the promoters booking me now are people I used to work with, which is such a crazy, surreal feeling.

How does your inner child feel right now?

This goes back to my answer about the color pink. I feel like now that I’ve been able to incorporate pink into my artistry, it has made my younger self so excited because it just gives me an excuse to use pink. But beyond that, I’ve always wanted to be a singer, and for years I told myself that I couldn’t and shouldn’t do it, so my younger self used to always envision me doing what I’m doing now, so that’s also very surreal.

Who are your OnesToWatch?

My favorite band from LA, they’re an 8-piece instrumental band called Katalyst. I work with them a lot.