Everyone's Obsession With Phoebe Bridgers, Explained

Don't try to resist.

Phoebe Bridgers is a critical darling who earned mainstream name recognition following her hit album Punisher and super-memorable (and meme-able) performances on Saturday Night Live in 2021. She was candid with The New York Times about her feelings about her success.

"People who want to make that some tagline for life—'Success doesn’t affect your happiness' and 'Money isn’t everything'—I think those people were probably raised with money," she said. "My first three tours, I was in a Prius that I bought when I was 18, going to Taco Bell every day and feeling kind of s**tty. Now I get to have a latte whenever I want and make art that people will actually listen to. You know, it’s worked out."

OK, but why is Phoebe Bridgers so popular and beloved by all—including SZA and Taylor Swift? Let us count the ways! (Spoiler alert: It's because she's awesome.) Here, we answer your biggest questions about the crooner.

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What does Phoebe Bridgers do?

Bridgers is a singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer. Before achieving success as a solo artist, she was in a series of bands while still in school; her band Sloppy Jane got their cover of The Pixies' "Gigantic" into an Apple ad that enabled her financially to keep pursuing her dream.

“My rent was paid, and I would go to the studio every day like it was my f**king job until it was my job,” she told Rolling Stone. “There’s no advice you could give anybody to have that same experience. I was so f**king lucky.”

The 26-year-old got her big break when she performed at the South by Southwest Festival in March 2017. By that June, she had a record deal, and in September released her debut full-length album, Stranger in the Alps. The album was critically-acclaimed, earning a perfect 100 score from The AV Club, which gushed, "Stranger In The Alps alchemizes sorrow into redemptive beauty. It’s never about wallowing, but about slowly moving through it. That difference, played out over some incredible, wise-beyond-her-years songwriting, makes it one of the best albums of the year." The album received almost universally high praise from other major music publications.

Bridgers' followup, Punisher, however, is what made her a household name. The album, released in June 2020, was even more acclaimed than her debut.

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Are Phoebe Bridgers and Paul Mescal engaged?

Normal People star Paul Mescal may have accidentally spilled the beans about his engagement to Bridgers in a November 2022 interview with The Guardian, which was the first to report the news. However, neither of them have confirmed an engagement—and in December 2022, it was rumored that the couple actually split ... but no one has confirmed or denied that, either.

Are Phoebe Bridgers and Bo Burnham dating?

Bridgers and comedian Bo Burnham are rumored to be possibly, maybe romantically involved, and it may or may not be messy. The two are longtime pals, and Burnham has been in a relationship with Hustlers director Lorene Scafaria since 2013.

In fact, they all hung out together several times, including here, when Bridgers, Burnham and Scafaria dined out with a group that included Matty Healy of The 1975—who also posted the above photo in December 2022 of himself smooching Bridgers while Burnham looked on.

What are Phoebe Bridgers fans called?

Phoebe Bridgers' fans affectionately and somewhat ironically refer to themselves as "Pharbz."

Why did ACL cut off Phoebe Bridgers?

The Austin City Limits festival cut off Bridgers' set in October 2021 because of miscommunications among the festival staff and stage crew. ACL said in a statement to The Austin Statesman at the time, "Unfortunately, due to a miscommunication on stage by ACL Festival personnel, the sound on the final song of (the) Phoebe Bridgers set was cut off during her ACL Fest weekend two performance. We wish this had not happened and extend our apologies to Phoebe. After positive conversations between festival organizers and the artist about the situation, ACL Fest has made a donation to Texas Abortion Funds to show our support for Phoebe and an organization close to her heart."

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What nationality is Phoebe Bridgers?

Bridgers is American.

Is Phoebe Bridgers' hair natural?

Bridgers has been dyeing her hair for time immemorial, but in October 2022 let some of her natural brown roots peek through her bleached 'do.

Is Phoebe Bridgers goth?

Bridgers rocks a skeleton onesie like no other and considers herself, at least, somewhat goth—in jest, mostly. She tweeted in October 2020, "I can confirm that I am a goth vsco girl."

Is Phoebe Bridgers a Taylor Swift fan?

Bridgers is, in fact, a Swiftie, and she collaborated with Taylor Swift on the track "Nothing New (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault)" for Red (Taylor's Version).

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In a June 2022 interview with The Guardian, Bridgers said that Swift texted her asking for her to feature on the song. “I remember blacking out reading the text because we’d never met or interacted in any way, so to be asked as our first interaction was crazy,” Bridgers recalled.

Swift said the song is about her very first brush with the fear of aging, irrelevance and replacement. How young women are taught by society that our youth is a rapidly depleting commodity;” she noted that Bridgers' interpretation of the song was “profound and insightful—she was talking about how not only do older men and culture fetishise a girl’s youth, but we in turn begin to internalize that ideology and genuinely believe it about ourselves."

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Bridgers, who is an opener for Swift's Eras tour, is a genius in Swift's eyes. Swift told The Guardian of the indie queen, “I never once thought: this is who she’s referencing and this is who clearly has inspired her—she is the reference now.” Swift added that she loved how Bridgers “juxtaposes conflicting themes like humour and depression, romance and nihilism, a tender vocal delivery with a razor-sharp box-cutter lyric. There’s always a twist.”

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What did Phoebe Bridgers say about Ryan Adams?

In 2019, Bridgers joined Mandy Moore and several other women in accusing singer, songwriter and producer Ryan Adams of emotional abuse. She later encouraged not just survivors to speak out, but also those around alleged abusers to speak up and call them out. Adams denied all allegations of abuse. She later told The Ringer of her situation, “I guess I just get to talk about that s**t a little bit more than I did before, and I met tons of great people through it. It was definitely worse right before it came out. I was afraid it wasn’t gonna come out, afraid we’re gonna get sued. You still gaslight yourself and it’s like, ‘Did any of this s**t happen?’ And then the day it came out, no matter how many people told me to go f**k off and die on the internet, I met so many amazing people and got so many f**king emails that made me really emotional, being like, ‘I was the barista down the street from the studio,’ or whatever. It just made me feel good.”

Bridgers also spoke out about rocker Marilyn Manson after actress Evan Rachel Wood accused him of abuse. (Manson has denied all allegations of any misconduct.)

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Why does Phoebe Bridgers dress as a skeleton?

In all of her music videos for Punisher, Bridgers wears a skeleton onesie. She explained to The Ringer, “I put on the skeleton suit, and it’s like, ‘Damn, this is comfortable.’ So I think being a character is funny but it also, it is rooted in reality. Like I really have been wearing the same pajamas for like two months. I wash them every three days, and tried to get another pair online, but they’re sold out.”

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What personality type is Phoebe Bridgers?

While promoting Punisher, Bridgers explained to NME that vulnerability doesn't mean weakness. In fact, quite the opposite: “I think I did an OK job of being enough of a fully-formed human being in my art to show my personality and just to be myself–instead of having to fit a weird mold. I think I can do whatever I want for my next record. It’s vulnerable, but it’s nice that I don’t have to fake it," she said. “People are realizing that vulnerability isn’t a weakness, and the rise of mental health-related humor is making vulnerability feel like a strength.”

Bridgers is open about her mental health struggles, describing herself as "the anxious-avoidant attachment type." "I’ll talk to my therapist or my mom about how upset I am about something somebody did, and the logical conclusion is, 'Well, you should tell that person,'" she told The New York Times. "Then I’d have to resolve it, when what I want is to exile them from my life. But it’s common to not have black-and-white feelings about your family, and it’s nice to talk to people who’ve had similar experiences. It makes me feel less alone, and I get more of those experiences from sharing my own. But I don’t like when my family hears it."

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Did Phoebe Bridgers smash a guitar?

We need no introduction for this moment from February 2021, which sent Twitter into a tizzy.

She wrote on Instagram of the incident, "got some really great feedback from my performance! next time I’ll just burn it and it will be more expensive."

Next, these are the best love songs ever to add to your date night playlist.