As an “internet artist” — meaning “most of my fans are people that are heavily online,” she explained via Zoom ahead of her Boston show this Tuesday — it’s likely that the English producer and singer has infiltrated your daily scrolling. Her popular songs have become some of the most ubiquitous melodies on social media: the dazed 98 seconds of “Pain,” the romantic tug of war “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2,” with rapper Ice Spice, and, more recently, a fizzy bout of paranoia called “Illegal.”
Naming the genres of those songs is a different story. PinkPantheress’ tunes are bite-size, rarely over three minutes long, but sardine-can-packed with subgenres of electronic music from her home turf, like jungle and drum & bass.
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“I do think that I shove so many melodies into one song,” PinkPantheress, born Victoria Walker, told the Globe. She named her 2025 single “Tonight” as an example, explaining that she’s witnessed Reddit discussions struggle to identify the song’s “whompy” style of electric dance music, called bassline.
“It’s actually a genre from where I’m from — from the UK — which I love to educate people about,” she said, particularly “people that are overseas.”
This is the kind of music Walker likes “nerding out” about, and class is in session on Tuesday when she performs at MGM Music Hall at Fenway to support her 2025 mixtape, “Fancy That,” and its accompanying remix album, “Fancy Some More?” (Like her tunes, even the projects’ names are quintessentially British.)
A former piano student and self-taught producer, Walker boasts an origin story that most artists dream of. Her first post to TikTok — a clip of unreleased music shared on Christmas day in 2020 — racked up 500,000 likes. Her music’s presence on social media began to mushroom in 2021, when users started spreading her single “Pain,” a now-billion-streamed song that falls under the umbrella of UK garage (not to be confused with garage rock, which precedes the electronic genre by at least 30 years).
By the time rapper Ice Spice — another viral star — hopped on Walker’s song “Boy’s a Liar” to make a “pt. 2” remix in 2023, Walker was delivering hits with “niche” subgenres her listeners might not have even heard of. The song, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, ultimately appeared on her debut LP, 2023’s “Heaven Knows.”
“I’ve had people call me a rapper,” Walker said. “It’s crazy, but 100 percent, because the way I present, that’s the first assumption. And I think in America, it’s just exacerbated by 10 times, because I think electronic and dance [music] — jungle, drum & bass — has less of a foundation here.”
She paused. “Even though, actually, Chicago house was one of the birthing fathers of drum & bass and jungle. I do think the genres really only got developed back in the UK and in Europe, and even actually in Australia.”
“Nerding out,” indeed.
Another “England versus America” perspective Walker sees among listeners is their various takes on Auto-Tune, a tool that Walker’s open about using to curate her dove-like vocals.
“If anyone ever tries to make fun of me for Auto-Tune, I fully can tell you right now, I’ve never cared once in my life,” she said, noting that she’s from “the schools of” artists like Charli XCX and Lily Allen, both English acts who have used Auto-Tune as a style choice.
“Some people prioritize lyrics. Some people prioritize people’s visuals,” she added. “But I prioritize songwriting, and I think when someone’s a good songwriter, I don’t care how they sing.”
Cultural differences aside, Walker’s fared just fine in the United States. She’s already achieved a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 this year — a remix of her song “Stateside” that features Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson, which peaked at No. 6 — and she was one of the most anticipated performers at Coachella last month.
It’s quite the contrast from just a few years ago, when Walker was canceling performances for various health reasons. In 2022, she dropped off Spain’s Primavera Festival because of “partial hearing loss.” She later revealed that she’s 80 percent deaf in her right ear, the result of never wearing earplugs while DJing or attending concerts when she was younger.
“It honestly taught me about the fragility of the body,” she said. “I think that does help me in my career because now I’ll think twice before accepting to do certain things I know I can’t do.”
After initially mixing and mastering all of her material, Walker’s diminished hearing has forced her to bring in other professionals, although she said “there was part of me that honestly felt quite relieved” about passing the task to other people. (“I did have a good go,” she admitted, “my earlier songs were mixed pretty well, considering it was all myself.”)
“I love controlling my own music — I love controlling every aspect and doing everything myself,” she said. “But obviously, there’s a part of you that realizes that someone will do it better than you. I guess I faced that reality in real time.”
Another self-reckoning followed shortly thereafter, when negative feedback began piling up about Walker’s live performances. That her career has skyrocketed online was a blessing, but it meant her onstage chops lagged behind her studio skills.
What were listeners saying, exactly? “People were just saying I was a bad performer, really,” Walker recalled. “Yeah.”
After completing a North American headline tour in 2024, she pulled the plug on the remainder of her shows that year — including festival appearances and stints opening for Olivia Rodrigo and Coldplay — noting that she had “reached a wall which I am struggling to penetrate through.”
“It was the first time where I was like, ‘there’s a narrative that I can’t control, and I don’t know how to or why,’” Walker added. “It was really driving me crazy. … I was actually in physical pain at some point from it all. ”
“All that to say, I left and I basically workshopped a whole new thing,” she said, referencing the new-and-improved live concept that fans are witnessing on her current tour.
It seems that after years of educating fans, the teacher has become the student. Well, fancy that.
PINKPANTHERESS
With Cece Natalie. At MGM Music Hall at Fenway, 2 Lansdowne St., Boston, Tuesday, May 12, 8 p.m. Tickets $194. crossroadspresents.com
Victoria Wasylak can be reached at victoria.wasylak@globe.com. Follow her on Bluesky at VickiWasylak.bsky.social.