On June 6, 2025, Isabel LaRosa played the main stage at Governors Ball in Queens, New York. Four years earlier, in 2021, she and her brother Thomas had been kicked out of the same festival's backstage area, two unknown kids from Annapolis with nothing but self-released songs to their name. PEOPLE told the sneaking-in story when she returned as a billed act. The four years in between are one of the fastest documented rises in dark pop.
What happened in 2021?
In 2021 LaRosa was a homeschooled 16-year-old with no label and no team. She self-released her debut single “16 Candles” that September 8, followed by “Closer” and “Gameboy.” Somewhere in that same stretch she and Thomas made their uninvited visit to the Governors Ball backstage and were shown the exit. It was also, quietly, the year the whole universe around her clicked into place: she co-wrote “BABYDOLL” with Thomas and Ari Abdul, the song that would later become Abdul's Gold-certified breakout.
How do you get from ejected to top billing in four years?
Fast, and in public. The self-released singles caught label attention, and in February 2022 she signed to Slumbo Labs/RCA Records at 17, still finishing high school online. Her debut EP I'm Watching You (June 24, 2022) arrived as a self-co-directed video trilogy. Then “i'm yours” (October 28, 2022) detonated on TikTok and eventually went RIAA Platinum, BPI Silver and RMNZ Gold.
The live ladder followed the viral one. She opened 20 shows on Nessa Barrett's Young Forever Tour, including NYC's Terminal 5, and has said hearing crowds sing “i'm yours” back was the moment she realized the music meant something to people. In 2024 came “Favorite,” which drew over 400 million views of fan-made content before it was even released, a debut performance at the MTV VMAs, and the God's Watching co-headline tour with Ari Abdul. By April 18, 2025 she had a debut album, Raven, a headline run in the Psychopomp Tour, and 11.6 million Spotify monthly listeners.
The 2025 set
Her Governors Ball slot came on the festival's opening day, a bill NYS Music logged alongside The Beaches, T-Pain, Role Model and headliner Tyler, the Creator. Seven weeks into the Raven era, she was no longer the kid talking her way past a barricade: she was on the poster of the festival that once removed her.
The festival that showed her the exit in 2021 printed her name on the poster in 2025.
The rest of that summer kept scaling. She played Lollapalooza Chicago on August 1, part of a 170-plus-act 2025 bill that also included Christian Gates, plus Lollapalooza India in March and a European festival run through Sziget, Summer Well, FM4 Frequency and Pukkelpop, before the Psychopomp Tour's Europe and UK leg closed the year.
Why the story sticks
Full-circle stories are usually PR confections. This one has receipts on both ends: a named festival, a named year, the sibling who got thrown out with her (and went on to produce essentially her whole catalog), and a dated main-stage set four years later. It is also a neat index of how this generation rises: no radio campaign carried her from the parking lot to the poster, just self-released songs, self-directed videos and a viral single she wrote with her brother.
The circles keep getting bigger. In May 2026 she supported Madison Beer's Locket Tour through European and UK arenas, her first arena stages. “I've never actually done my own full arena show. I'm so excited, I honestly can't wait,” she told Principle Magazine ahead of the run. Somewhere there is a venue that has not let her in yet. Give it four years.