Meet Cassyette: The genre-defying rock star who brought screaming to Eurovision

The musician was born Cassy Brooking in Essex the mid-1990s. In her youth, she was a convent-educated clarinet student. Then she discovered bands like Paramore, Korn, and Black Sabbath.

The sense of release was intoxicating. As a queer teenager in a strict religious environment, she often felt like a misfit or a reject. But bands like Motley Crue, with their OTT theatrics, hinted at a world where she could fit in.

By chance, her neighbour was a producer with an “insane guitar collection”. He needed a female vocalist for a “dark musical” he’d written, and it was there that Cassyette found her voice – ragged but powerful, always one step away from disintegrating with emotion.

After studying songwriting at university, she had a stint as a club DJ, playing at legendary fetish club Torture Garden and London drag event Sink The Pink.

Before long, those electronic textures seeped into her music, with bass drops and drum loops adding raw energy to her sawtooth guitar riffs.

And like every other musician under the sun, she blew up on TikTok during the pandemic, thanks partly to her ability to produce gale-force screams,, external even when covering Lady Gaga, external.

Early singles like Dear Goth and Prison Purse caught the attention of rebel icons like Debbie Harry and Liam Howlett of the Prodigy (who sprinkled some “magic dust” on her 2022 single Boom).

With her star rising, she played to packed-out tents at Glastonbury and Download. Then Bryan Adams asked her to tour with him.

If you think that seems like an odd fit, you’re right.

“Yeah it’s a pretty different audience,” she laughs, “but I played some of my more chilled, heartfelt stuff and it was really nice.”

She even ended up bonding with the Summer Of ’69 singer, who dutifully came to watch her show every night.

“He took my number afterwards – and he just checks up on me every now and then,” she beams. “He’s such a shining light.”