The world, as a general rule, can be as bleak and monotonous as it is beautiful. For most of us, it’s an endless, comfortable routine. Make breakfast, go to work, sit in traffic, pay the bills, walk the dog, make dinner. Then sleep and repeat. And repeat and repeat and repeat. It’s not a bad life by any means—in fact it’s a rather good one—but the days do start to blend together. Through it all there’s a little voice whispering in our heads: What if there’s more? What if we were more?

But there are those who let that whisper blossom into a shout, who see the world a little more brightly than others, who aren’t afraid of jumping at the chance to be more, no matter how knee-knocking. These are the dreamers. Alice Chater is one of those dreamers.

Perhaps this tendency was born out of the necessity to brighten up a childhood spent in Ramsgate, England, the kind of small seaside town that offers just enough comfort to distract from the lack of opportunities, lulling most of its inhabitants out of any ideas of escape. But Alice had a fire in her, a flame of passion and fierce artistry that burned hot enough to make her certain that her destiny wasn’t to stay in her hometown but to make performance, already the light of her life, her whole life. So she readily—if a bit sheepishly—admits to me that she spent her school years daydreaming rather than listening, thinking only of her next musical theater show or her newest dance routine. “I had friends that weren’t sure what they wanted to do,” she recalls, “and it was difficult for them to decide what career to pursue or what they really enjoyed doing. With me, since I was little, I was really bad at everything else, apart from singing, dancing, and acting. I really lent into that. I completely—which I don’t suggest other people to do—I completely pushed aside everything else.”

Alice Chater isn’t just a dreamer; she was also born to perform. It was an affection that her parents fostered, surrounding her in a supportive bubble of love and creativity. When Alice casts her mind back to her childhood, she remembers ABBA blasting on the sound system at her parent’s parties, the sounds of Céline Dion and the Electric Light Orchestra winding through the house, and the countless ballet classes, classical voice lessons and town shows her mother and father encouraged her to participate in. “I remember, actually, there was no drama class at school or acting class, so my mom created an after-school drama club so I could do my acting,” she tells me. “But the frustrations were that it’s really impossible when you come from a small town to have those connections, to get in those rooms and to get those auditions. We had no clue where to start, so we just made use of everything we could locally. So I did every single musical theater show we could possibly do locally, and we just gradually built up from there.”

And build up she did. When I speak with Alice, she’s basking in the afterglow of the release of “Don’t Let My Boyfriend Get in Your Way,” her first song in four years and her first release since joining Epic Records via Tricky Stewart’s RZ3 Recordings this year. It’s a sultry, sassy tune inviting suitors to vie for her hand, not promising that her misbehaving boyfriend will win. The accompanying music video, featuring clips of Alice strutting en pointe on a treadmill in pearl-decked leg warmers and coquettishly playing tennis with potential beaus, exudes a flirty, fun, and fully truthful version of herself—exactly who she wants the world to know her as in her new era. “I’ve been through a lot, with relationships especially. I have never really had a stable relationship, which is wild, and it’s probably partly my fault too because I choose the wrong men,” she confides. “I really want to show that side of me being vulnerable about the past relationships that I’ve had.”

Alice is just getting started, perhaps because her road to stardom wasn’t a simple or smooth one. Her lack of funds and connections taught her early on that if the world didn’t want to give her a chance, she would have to make her own opportunities. “It’s the Ramsgate girl in me,” she says. “I’m like, I’ll do anything, come on.” Armed with that knowledge, she threw herself into her passions, especially ballet, which eventually earned her a scholarship to Italia Conti, Britain’s oldest theater arts training school. At 17 years old, alone in London, the world finally began to shift under the pressure of her meticulous work ethic and unshakable passion.

She worked different jobs, she scrabbled for connections, she put a cover of Madonna’s “Hung Up” and Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect,” among others, on her Youtube channel, and she danced—she danced at Italia Conti, she danced in bars and nightclubs, and she danced on the tabletops of the YMCA lunch hall in her leotard with her fellow Italia Conti students while the ex- convicts they shared the building with ate dinner. Upon meeting her, it’s immediately clear that she’s never been afraid of hard work, never been one to shy away from putting herself in new and uncomfortable situations to achieve something.

Eventually, finally, incredibly, all that working and connecting and dancing and singing paid off when she met will.i.am. He thought he knew her in the industry—he didn’t—and she thought he would like her work—he did. As Alice remembers it, they exchanged details and he’s had her back ever since, helping her put out her first singles, “GIRLS X BOYS” and “Heartbreak Hotel,” in 2018. The following year, she released the track “Lola” with Iggy Azalea and collaborated with Professor Green on “Got It All,” earning her a spot on the Official UK Singles Chart, where she hovered for several weeks. Her EP Aries arrived in 2020, defined by her heart-wrenching vocals and catchy lyricism.

And then came the pandemic, bringing the dreams of pop stardom that she had fought so long and so hard for to a screeching halt. For four years fans waited and wondered where exactly their beloved crooning ballerina was. Where was she? Would she ever return to take her rightful place as a pop princess? She was, as it turns out, in the cave-like studios of Stockholm, writing and creating at a furious pace. Once again, Alice refused to be deterred from the vision of her future she could clearly see in her mind’s eye. Once again, her persistence paid off.

Her comeback arrives during the renaissance of girl pop, a summer full of catchy, bubbly, and bratty bops that empower and understand the women they sing about while they get low on the dance floor—it’s the same thing Alice aims to do through her music. The fact that she’s able to be a part of this is another source of joy for her. “I was always that girl at school that ended up getting herself beaten up, because I was always sticking up for injustice and something that I didn’t like. I’m such a girls’ girl. So it feels really great that girls are taking over the charts. For too long it’s been men, men, men, men,” she laughs. 

On the heels of her newest release comes “Come Alive,” another single that, in typical Alice style, worms in your ear and begins to move your hips and tap your feet without you even realizing it. Beyond that, her new album sits on the horizon like the fat morning sun, promising to shine a new warmth on hot girl pop music—although she can’t yet share much about it. “I love music that I can really dance to and music that sounds like how I dance personally, the kind of slinky, snaky balletic moves,” she says. “So I think that was really important for me writing this album, that it was danceable for sure.” 

So if you thought Alice was done, kindly think again. I’ll remind you that she is a dreamer, and the best part about dreaming when you’re awake is that you never have to worry about opening your eyes. There’s always more to dream of, and if you’re Alice Chater, more to make a reality.

Photographed by Damien Fry

Styled by Malcolm Smith

Written by Maddy Brown

Hair: Laura Rugetti at The Only Agency

Makeup: Francie Tomalonis at The Visionaries Agency

Flaunt Film: Timothy Shin