Step into the new era of Justine Skye, CultedXO’s second digital cover star.
You probably first met Justine Skye in her Tumblr era (maybe you even reblogged a pic of her with her trademark purple hair) but whether you’re an OG fan, having followed her career for years, or are completely new here, it doesn’t really matter, because, as she put it, “this is a completely different Justine.” Having just dropped “CANDY”, her EP which marks a turning point in her career and sound as an artist, this era for Justine is about growing, evolving, and redefining, a mindset that perfectly aligns with CultedXO’s.
I hopped on a call with Justine Skye two weeks after we shot her for the second digital cover of XO inside the iconic NY club, BOOM at The Standard High Line. Joining the call, with the live date for the cover mere days away, memories of the shoot resurfaced: lights bouncing off of mirrored walls, threads of sequins, heels on top of the bar. With references to Studio 54 club-goers throwing their heads back in ecstasy on the mood-board for the shoot, we’d intentionally aligned the story behind the cover with the vibe of Justine’s new EP, “CANDY.”
Since shooting, Justine had been everywhere performing “CANDY” exactly how it should be: in clubs buzzing with energy and intimate crowds letting loose without restraint. The fact that, in 2026, people simply don’t dance like that anymore has been a popular topic of conversation online and among music artists recently, with everyone submitting their own take. When we asked Justine why she thought clubs weren’t the same as they used to be, she mused, “It probably is [to do] with social media and just the way that things have changed. People are so concerned with being on their phones and capturing the moment rather than living in the actual moment, and who’s in the room and how cool does this person look [and] which section they’re in. People are more concerned about the optics of the dance floor rather than the energy of the dance floor.”
Having just been at Coachella the weekend before, partying with the likes of Kylie Jenner, a close friend since all the way back in her 2015 Tumblr era, we were curious to know whether Justine had personally experienced the epidemic of people not dancing firsthand at the festival. She explained that, to be honest, she hadn’t noticed. “Me and my friends are always dancing, so… [everyone else] can do what they want. I’m not paying attention to everything else going around me. Like, literally, my friends are [at Coachella] having a dance party. They’re having a huge rager tonight just because they want to dance. That’s what I surround myself with.”
While Justine has stayed close with a lot of the same friends from her early days, looking back to the start of her career, it feels like a lot’s changed since the time when Justine first found fame, dubbed “The Purple Unicorn” for her colourful hair and regularly photographed hanging with LA’s most famous. When I asked Justine what she’d say to herself from back then, if she could send her younger self a message, she said, “I guess I would tell her to remain who she is. I feel like, at a certain point in my life, I got a little bit lost in what people’s idea of me was, rather than the girl that I was. When I was on Tumblr, I was so carefree and unapologetic, and wore different lipsticks. It’s so embarrassing at this point, when you Google me and, like, that picture of me in white lipstick comes up. But [back then] I didn’t care.”
“Before my hair was purple, I was the girl with the blue lipstick. I was really just experimenting, and it felt like, you know, I was a child. It was [like] playing as a child.” She went on to explain, “I guess I would tell myself to not lose that [playfulness], because I feel like I’ve just now, in the last year or two, come back to it. There’s no regrets, like, everything happens for a reason, but I feel like for a large portion of [that time], I was really, really confused.” Despite having fully transformed since then, we asked whether Justine considered that the 2015 version of herself was still metaphorically with her in her “CANDY” era, and her response was definitive. “I think this is a completely different Justine, and so it’s a bit frustrating when everyone’s like, ‘We want that purple unicorn, like, dye your hair purple again.’ It’s like, why would you want me to be someone who is so confused and so unhappy?”
“I get [that] people like familiarity, but I’m trying to get to a different level now. I appreciate the yearn for the nostalgia of it all, but it’s like, I’m 30. Like, I’m literally 30 years old. I’m a grown woman now. What [would] I look like walking around purple hair? I feel like I look the best I’ve ever looked. I feel the best I’ve ever been. Like, I have a pixie [cut] now, which I’ve always wanted to do, but I was so scared to do. I feel like this is who I’ve been, like, growing to be, you know. Like even that young girl, [I’m who] she’s always wanted to be. I’m so proud of myself and the confidence that I have now.”
“To be honest, that purple hair was me hiding behind something. Like, it was me trying to find ‘my thing.’ Sometimes people didn’t even know my name. They just knew that was the girl with the purple hair. And it’s like, this is Justine Skye now. It feels so good to be walking around at Coachella and so many people coming up to me being like, ‘wow, I love your music,’ not ‘wow, like, your hair is so cool.‘ Like, yeah, my hair is still cool, but it comes together in the idea of, like, “CANDY” and Justine Skye as an artist. Not just the girl with the purple hair.”
Since she was known by that persona of ‘The Purple Unicorn’, Justine’s not only fully transformed her image but also her sound, particularly with her latest project “CANDY”. Her clearly defined step into a new era via the genre of ‘dance’ – something she’s never done before – has sparked a lot of conversation online about what people are dubbing ‘the Justine Skye Renaissance’, and Justine’s not opposed to that label. “I think it’s the beginning of that, like, the rebirth of me and the reinvention of it all. This, for me, is the appetiser. It’s like, this is an EP, but so I’m excited to get back in and work on an album and really just fine tune the sound. This is literally just the beginning.”
Despite having dropped seven projects since she started out in the music industry, talking to Justine it’s clear that her passion for making music is burning as bright as ever, maybe even brighter than it ever has before. When we asked her what keeps her passion alive, she said, “Just that music keeps evolving. I’m going through different experiences in my life and I’m changing as a human being. There’s different stories to tell, different sounds to [hear], different colours that I’m seeing, and it’s exciting to be able to share that through my music and to still be able to make music and people wanting to listen and come see me perform.”
Another thing that pushed Justine to experiment with dance music was her collaboration with her friend, Kaytranada, who’s named as a credit on “Ooh Lala” on her new EP. “I think [working with Kaytranada] gave me the push that I needed to continue to experiment in this direction and to have the support and encouragement from a friend who was a friend before we even started working together. Our friendship has just continued to strengthen as we push the music. Every party that we’re at together, we’re performing the songs. I don’t think I’ve ever had that cosign, you know, by a bigger artist before, and it feels good to have that in this space. It reassures me that this is the right direction I should be going in.”
But none of this means Justine feels like an expert in the genre her EP is currently making waves in. “I’m new to the genre, [so] I’m always going to be careful about how I speak on it, because I have so much respect for it. I don’t know everything and I’m learning as I go in this as well, which is so exciting for me.” Talking about how she’d define ‘dance’ music, as an ever-evolving genre, in 2026, she shared that “personally, I hate genres, to be honest. Like, when people ask me what kind of music I make, I just like to say, I make great music. Obviously, we need genres, they give people the accolades when it comes to this specific sound. But I feel it’s like colours, you know, like, we have the primary colours and we have the primary genres, and then there’s like subdivisions of each genre.”
“It’s like, pop music. I don’t even think pop is an actual sound because it’s just popular music, you know? Even though something could be dance, if it’s global and becomes the biggest song in the world, it’s now pop. A Beyonce song could be R&B, but now it’s pop. “Bad Habits” by Steve Lacey wasn’t necessarily a pop song, but it became huge, so now it’s pop. So, I think that when it comes to dance, there’s so many different categories within that genre, that are just blending and evolving. It’s just people that are experimenting with what inspires them from the past and blending it with modern day energy and sounds.”
While there may be many categories and sub-categories within dance as a genre, there hasn’t seemed to be a ton of diversity in the way artists of that genre look, up until recently. Discussion in the music industry hasn’t shied away from the fact that Black, female artists can find it harder to earn a place in genres like dance, because they’ve recently been so defined by white, male artists. With Justine’s EP breaking this mould and disrupting the stereotype, we asked her how it feels to be actively inspiring other people to follow in her footsteps with her work. She told us, “It’s such an honour, actually. [Although,] I do think that Black women have been at the forefront of dance music from the beginning. But as things evolve and change, that has kind of been diluted, and obviously things have changed.”
“I feel like there’s been a shift again. I actually just saw a TikTok that someone made and they started it off by talking about my project and then going on to list all the other Black female artists in the dance space. It was just such an honour to be the leading topic of the conversation, to start to blossom and bring back the attention to the other artists in this genre. It just feels really good and that wasn’t even necessarily my intention with this. I literally was just doing what my heart felt like it needed to do, but if it’s inspiring and helping to push things forward, I’m just completely honoured.”
At this point it was almost time to wrap up the interview, but before we went I was curious to know, from someone who’s new era is defined by partying, what it really means to have a perfect night out. As we shot Justine’s cover for XO in BOOM at The Standard High Line, the conversation naturally circled back to the iconic NY spot and Justine’s favourite memories there. “I have a couple. BOOM is the place that you visit often as a New Yorker. I mean, it’s iconic. There’s always events [there], after parties for Met Galas and this and that. One of the first times we played “Oh Lala” we were at BOOM. It was after the premiere for – I can’t remember what that movie was – but it was The Weeknd and Jenna Ortega and we were at BOOM and Kaytranada was DJing. I’m in the DJ booth and then Kay plays “Oh Lala” for the first time and everyone’s just there, like, vibing. It was just such an iconic moment for the beginning of that song.”
“I think it was another time with Kaytranada too, and it was like Pride and it was just such a fun night. I remember I had to perform and I was walking along the bo, which I also had to do during the cover shoot [for XO] and it was giving me a little bit of PTSD because I was like, ‘oh shit, like, I just hope I don’t fall.’ It was kind of scary because you don’t want to look like you’re not confident, but also I’m in heels.” Lastly, we asked the ultimate question for any party-goer: if you could party with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be? Justine didn’t hesitate before responding, “I want to party with Madonna. I’m so excited for her new album, like, she literally is the word iconic.”
If you’ve reached the end of this interview and you haven’t heard Justine Skye’s new EP “CANDY” yet, you need to check it out. Her authentic lyricism, melodic vocals, and new sound – partially produced by a legend within the genre, Kaytranada – combine effortlessly to form an EP that’s getting people back on their feet. Justine’s not establishing her final form, she’s simply setting the tone. For us at XO, that’s something we identify with.
