Millions of people around the world know her face, her voice, and her most intimate thoughts and secrets.
Her concerts in London, New York City and across Australia sell out almost as soon as they’re announced.
Unless you’re one of Peach PRC‘s legion of social media followers (or a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, which featured her hit Like A Girl Does), it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard of her – something the Adelaide-born musician is fighting to change, and not just for her own sake.
Watch the video above.
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It’s no secret that the state of the local music industry in Australia is… grim, to say the least, for emerging artists.
That became apparent this week when Apple Music released their Top 50 most-streamed songs in Australia, and only two of them were by local artists – both hits didn’t make the top 30, and one of the songs was more than 10 years old.
With the rising instability of music festivals – events Tones and I credits with putting her on the map – artists are increasingly turning to social media for their big breaks.
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How did Peach PRC get famous?
That’s what Peach PRC did, and her more than 2.2 million TikTok followers were crucial to getting her a record deal with Island Records in Australia, which is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.
Then she ran into a problem.
Born Sharlee Curnow, the now-27-year-old former stripper achieved a rare feat in 2021 and 2022 – with singles Josh and God Is a Freak, she became one of the few local artists to burst the Taylor Swift bubble and actually secure a place on the ARIA charts.
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“I’ve been interested in music for as long as I could talk, really,” Peach PRC – who chose her stage name because she loves pink and Princess Peach, with PRC being an abbreviation of ‘porcelain’ – told Echo Magazine in 2020.
“I’ve always sang and wrote songs and even have songs written from when I was like eight years old.”
In early 2024, however, Universal Music Group pulled their music from TikTok, citing “bullying” and a “bad deal” for artists. (In the United States, she’s signed with Republic Records, which is also owned by Universal Music Group).
Stream every episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under only on Stan.
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Yes, this saw Swift, Drake, Billie Eilish and more Grammy-winning artists’ hits no longer available to use for lip-syncing and dance videos, but it also put smaller artists, who rely on the platform to grow their audience, directly in the crossfire.
That included Peach PRC, who turned to “leaking” her own then-unreleased single Secret to promote it.
Social media savvy Peach PRC is no stranger to using adversity to her advantage
“Y’all got like 2 weeks to learn the lyrics before UMG catches on and mutes this,” she wrote in a video of herself lip-syncing the lyrics I know you wanna keep it, your secret / And I would never speak it, your secret from her kitchen.
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The Secret backing track ended up being muted (and then restored when a new licensing deal was reached) from the three videos Peach PRC posted promoting it, but that didn’t matter.
Collectively, they reached almost one million views, and Secret made the Official Aotearoa Music Charts’ Top 40.
It’s not the first time she’s used adversity to her advantage when it comes to her music.
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Peach PRC – who has been nominated for four ARIA Awards and won Rolling Stone Australia‘s Best Single award this year for Perfect for You – is clearly no stranger to going viral.
In June 2022, however, she found herself trending for all the wrong reasons – and for something she hadn’t posted herself.
The then-25-year-old covered iconic band Wheatus’ even more iconic hit Teenage Dirtbag, as well as a reimagined version of God Is A Freak for Spotify Singles, and from her social media “bubble” the reviews were raving.
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Then, comments from a wider audience rolled in.
“the amount of 🤟🏻men🤟🏻who are being so mean about my teenage dirtbag cover lol they act like metallica is gonna walk in their living room and hand them a beer for pointing out autotune. being a loser takes inches off your hairline grow up,” Peach PRC tweeted in response to the trolls – but the criticism, despite her mammoth online following and presence, was a new experience for her.
“I actually don’t get a lot of [trolls],” Peach PRC later reflected to 9honey Celebrity. “I feel like I only noticed that when my music [was] shared through a platform that isn’t mine.”
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“When a different platform shows my stuff and it’s to a new audience, people are like, ‘What the f–k is this?’ I’m, like, so taken aback,” she continued.
As it turns out, Wheatus had actually retweeted Peach PRC’s performance to their own platform, exposing her to a different crowd.
She acknowledged her songs would not be liked by everyone, but for her, the criticism was “jarring” to see.
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Then, Wheatus privately reached out to express their approval of her cover, and give her some heartwarming advice.
“They were like, ‘I think it’s awesome, it’s really fun.’ Like, you know, ‘F–k what the haters are saying. Like, they hated it when we put it out 20 years ago. So like, don’t stress about it,'” she recalled.
“It was so cool,” she said. “And so I was just like all the men that were just like, ‘You’ve ruined it.’ I’m like, ‘I haven’t taken the original away from you. Don’t listen to it.’ I’m like, ‘Wheatus even likes it.’ Grow up, get over it.”
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