Beloved ILLENIUM Collaborator Annika Wells Ends Solo Electronic Features, Pivots to New Artist Alias

After lending her voice to a number of dance music’s most recognizable tracks of the last decade, Annika Wells is stepping away from the EDM spotlight, at least under her own name.

The voice behind some of the genre’s most cinematic choruses is changing the station. In a social media post made over the weekend, Wells announced she’s no longer releasing electronic music features as a solo artist. The Los Angeles native, whose soaring vocals powered ILLENIUM’s “Nightlight,” “Sad Songs” and the fan-favorite “Crawl Outta Love,” said the decision ultimately came down to a quietly potent force in modern music: the streaming algorithm.

According to Wells, bouncing between her solo pop material and her high-profile electronic features has left the Spotify algorithm unsure of how to classify her. It’s a problem that, in her view, limits her visibility on the platform, particularly on genre-based editorial playlists.

“Unfortunately streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music have this thing where they want artists to kind of fit into a box, and if your music doesn’t sound like one thing, they don’t know where to put you,” Wells said. “Right now Spotify is not playlisting me anywhere. So a few months ago, I made the hard decision that I am never gonna be doing another electronic feature again.”

The news landed with fans hard initially as Wells received “hundreds” of comments and messages, she said, prompting her to return to social media to clarify her plan. The singer-songwriter confirmed she’s not abandoning electronic features altogether, but rather shifting them to her new artist project, baby blue, a duo formed with her boyfriend, James Quick.

“I will still be putting out music under the name Annika Wells,” she said. “It just won’t be electronic music.”

She also announced the tandem’s first electronic feature, “Monster” with EDM.com Class of 2021 artist William Black, will arrive this Friday.

In the meantime, you can listen to baby blue’s debut single “u + me” below.

Follow Annika Wells:

X: x.com/itmeannikawells
TikTok: tiktok.com/@annikamusic
Instagram: instagram.com/annikawells
Facebook: facebook.com/annikawellsmusic
Spotify: bit.ly/42e7t1K

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