Rilan Roppolo

Twenty two-year-old singer, songwriter, actor and dancer, Rilan is a study in contradiction. The independent artist, who first appeared on the scene with his 2015 EP Chemicals, is a charismatic looker who describes himself as a "freak" and a "weirdo." Because he dressed like an emo kid and wore makeup to his preppy high school in New Orleans, his classmates assumed he was a troublemaker, when he was actually a straight-A student who never broke the rules. He's a former musical theater kid who loves '70s glam rock and '80s synth-pop. He's chatty and warm in person but insists he has no social life and few friends. "I don't connect with people easily," he says. "I like to sit back and observe, and report on how I'm feeling through my music." In Rilan's music, dark, sad emotions are dressed up in glossy dance-pop packages, like the house-influenced single "Blindfolds," featuring Naz Tokio, which is about being rejected by someone you love and not being able to let go. On the surface, bou