Ever since Ice Spice joined her for “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” in early 2023, Pinkpantheress has been steadily on the rise. Before the New Yorker helped remix her hit song, Victoria Beverley Walker made waves on her own in the alternative music space. After “Break It Off” went viral on TikTok in 2021 she landed a deal with Parlophone and Elektra Records. They supported her through her debut mixtape, To Hell with It, which preceded last year’s breakout LP, Heaven Knows. We know without a doubt that the 22-year-old has creative talent, but some still have questions about Pinkpantheress’ ethnicity.
There was a point early on when the brunette beauty opted to keep her identity a secret from listeners. Now, however, PP proudly speaks about her mixed-race heritage, inspiring other biracial and Black people to do the same. She comes from modest beginnings, and though she didn’t have the advantage of parents working in the entertainment industry to help her, Walker’s older brother’s experience as an audio engineer certainly influenced her to begin exploring the same field.
Where Is Pinkpantheress From?
Pinkpantheress was born on April 18, 2001, in Bath, Somerset; by age five she relocated to Canterbury, Kent, where she spent her adolescent years. The “Pain” artist showed interest in music from childhood, studying piano and performing Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” at a school talent show when she was 12. From there, her passion for putting herself out there and trying new things only grew.
Two years later, Walker explored the genre of rock, singing in a cover band that put their spin on tracks from Paramore, Green Day and My Chemical Romance. Among her earliest jobs as a teen were Marks & Spencer, Claire’s and a Co-op supermarket. According to Rolling Stone UK, she now resides in Los Angeles part-time but still takes trips back across the pond regularly.
Who Are the Singer’s Parents?
When the genre-bending songstress was 12, her father, Stephen G. Walker (who’s of a White, English background), relocated to America to teach statistics at The University of Texas at Austin. Meanwhile, her Kenyan Luo mother, Elza (hailing from Kisumu), wanted to remain in Kent as she had grown used to the environment. The Walker family matriarch worked as a civil servant, DailyMail revealed back in 2022, taking care of others in need of medical assistance.
Pinkpantheress Has Pride in Her Kenyan Roots
Overall, Pinkpanthress struggles with shyness more than most of her contemporaries, so we don’t hear her speaking to the press much. Still, the young starlet has talked about her pride in her Kenyan roots – notably in the interview with Billboard above. “I am half Kenyan. I always feel like I need to let people know where I’m from,” she told the outlet when introducing herself to fans. “I’m super proud of my ancestry and my heritage, specifically Mombasa,” Walker shouted out the beautiful East African city.
Why Pinkpantheress Previously Hid Her Face From Listeners
When chatting with The Face, PP got candid about why she kept her identity secret early on in her career. “I’m not saying it’s to do with insecurity of my looks or the color of my skin,” the 22-year-old said. “I just didn’t want what I looked like – negatively or positively – to impact my music. So that’s why I started [by] not showing her face.” Thankfully for her, Walker found that the reaction to her biracialism was mostly positive.
“If you’ve earned a level of respect from the internet by offering them something worth offering, then generally they’re not gonna say negative things about what you look like,” she remarked. Of course, there was still some racist backlash over Pinkpantheress’ ethnicity, as she shared with Crack Magazine. “To be honest, I’m not surprised that people are surprised, I very much expected it. There aren’t many Black women in alternative spaces. That’s obviously the reason they were surprised in the first place.”
