RAEGAN Talks Camp, Heartbreak, and the World of “REAGAN CORE”
RAEGAN approaches pop music through world-building. Across her songs, visuals, costumes, and live performances, the 23-year-old artist transforms deeply personal experiences into scenes charged with Broadway-sized emotion, dark humor, camp, and spectacle. She labels the resulting style “theatre pop,” with each release unfolding like another act in an ongoing one-woman production.
That instinct for spectacle has shaped RAEGAN’s artistry from the beginning. Her viral debut, “TIM BURTON,” introduced listeners to a gothic, cinematic heroine left behind by the fantasy that created her. After earning more than one million likes on TikTok, the song laid the groundwork for the strange and emotionally volatile universe she expanded on her debut EP, F*CK RAEGAN. As a singer, songwriter, producer, actor, and dancer, RAEGAN also remains closely involved in every element of that world, shaping the sound, imagery, costumes, and performance language surrounding each project.
Her latest single, “RAEGAN CORE,” carries that creative vision into a brighter and more playful space while retaining the theatricality that connects to her work. The track also arrives as RAEGAN actively continues to build momentum across music, fashion, and social media, with more than 3.8 million global streams, 1.8 million video views, and a rapidly growing online audience.
Now, having toured across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe, RAEGAN aims to broaden the scope of her singular pop world—one where heartbreak becomes theatre, strangeness carries its own power, and every creative choice serves the story.
“RAEGAN CORE” is closely tied to your identity and the world you have built around your music. What does the phrase mean to you, and when did you realize it could become the foundation for a song?
RAEGAN: RAEGAN CORE is the world I live in and my way of life. It means everything to me because it’s a phrase I came up with to describe myself and what I do. It actually became the title of my song and project by accident. I played around with the phrase when describing my aesthetic and personality, and then it just fell into place at the perfect time.
You also describe your sound as “theatre pop.” What are the essential qualities that define that genre for you beyond the scale and drama of the production?
RAEGAN: To me, musical theatre pop is a mix of theatre storytelling, narrative, and instrumentation with pop princess structure and production.
Every song seems to function as a scene within a larger one-woman show. When you begin writing, do you encounter the emotion first, or does a character, costume, or visual world lead you into the story?
RAEGAN: To be honest, it’s really different every time, and I wouldn’t necessarily say I have an exact way of writing my music. Sometimes I start with a melody, or an emotion, or a topic, or I sometimes start with the beat. It really just depends.
Camp and satire play a major role in your work, even when the emotional subject matter is painful. How do you determine when humor will deepen a vulnerable moment rather than pull attention away from it?
RAEGAN: I think I try not to think about it too much and just do what I want to do for myself and my own processing. For example, my song “BALLAD OF A PRESCHOOL DROPOUT” is me being playful about my insecurities, which, in doing so, feels healing for me and like I am taking the power back. I often approach my music like it’s therapeutic and write from the perspective that serves me.
As a songwriter, producer, actor, and dancer, you oversee nearly every part of your creative universe. Which stage of that process feels most instinctive to you, and which one tends to challenge you the most?
RAEGAN: I would say making music and world-building are the easiest parts of my creative journey because they’re just reflections of my mind. When it comes to technically making things happen, sometimes that's where I struggle to bring my ideas to life with the resources I have now. But with the help of my creative community in NYC, I always manage to make it happen, however it can.
“TIM BURTON” introduced many listeners to your cinematic storytelling and helped build a passionate online following. How has your relationship with that song changed as your artistry has expanded beyond the character who first drew people in?
RAEGAN: I appreciate my song “TIM BURTON” because it’s where I started. I also, as most artists do, feel more drawn to represent what I am making now because it feels like a more accurate reflection of myself and who I am today. But I will always love that song and that musical era because it reminds me of who I was as a teenager, and I am proud of her for putting herself out there to lead me to where I am now.
After touring across the U.S., U.K., and Europe, what have you learned about which elements of your work translate universally—and where do you want the world of RAEGAN to go next?
RAEGAN: Those tours were very early in my career and my developmental stages not only as an artist but as a human. I look back at those videos and see a baby [laughs]. But I am forever grateful for those opportunities and experiences because it makes me fall in love with performing. On stage, I realize that my theatricality translates best, and I love putting on a show for the audience. I never want them to be bored. I want the world of RAEGAN to continue to progress and elevate. I always strive to be better than who I was yesterday in all aspects, and I want to forever push in that direction.
