Rising alt-popstar and songwriter Eliott has returned with a stunning new single ‘Tell Me’, out today via Island Records Australia. The single is the first glimpse of the Melbourne-based artist’s highly anticipated debut album, which is set to arrive later this year. A powerful and tender offering ‘Tell Me’ comes accompanied by an official video directed by Joshua Tate (Sycco, Safety Club).

Co-written by the renowned Andy Hopkins (Hauskey, Yorke), ‘Tell Me’ is an assured step forward for Eliott, who first broke out with the single ‘Figure It Out’ in 2017. Written in 2019 during a period of low mental health and personal turmoil, ‘Tell Me’ sees Eliott asking for assurance and guidance for the uncertain road ahead. Over thundering drums and a swelling choir Eliott pleads to her mother: “So tell me mother, when will I know what to do? / If I can’t keep up, and I don’t wanna get up this time / Oh my mother, when will I know how to lose? / How do I keep up when I don’t wanna get up this time”. The track’s gorgeous instrumentation, with humming pianos and an urgent cascade of guitars, feels both crushingly intimate and stadium sized.

“I wrote tell me when I was 22 years old and really feeling the weight of the world,” says Eliott. “My direction wasn’t clear I was a little lost and unsure of the path I wanted to take.”

Working with Hopkins in Sydney’s Forbes Street Studios helped her piece together her feelings. “Something for me which has helped heal and understand the motions that I’m going through, is songwriting,” she says. “Songwriting for me is the purest form of therapy, I’ll often subconsciously write something which I’ve been internally keeping in for a very long time and it gives me the space to let it out into the world and out of my own head – and with this song, that was the case.”

Gab Strum (Mallrat, George Alice) lead the production on ‘Tell Me’, with additional support from Hopkins, giving it the lift Eliott felt the song deserved. “Ever since day one I always knew there needed to be a choir involved,” she says. “It feels anthemic and soulful and I think Gab has captured that perfectly.”

Joshua Tate’s spare and striking video bottles ‘Tell Me’s intensity. Shot on warm 16mm film, the video captures Eliott in a gorgeous bright white hall surrounded by sculptures, framed by her choir and band. Filmed in one fluid, continuous take, Eliott’s reverent performance is nothing short of gripping.

“To pull it together in that amount of time was nerve racking, but I felt alive,” Eliott says. “There’s no room for error there, no leeway. You can’t have a bad performance. I really had to step into that role. But I think this song tells me to trust myself, so I did and it worked.”

Since ‘Figure It Out’ landed in 2017, Eliott has asserted herself as one of Australia’s brightest emerging songwriters. She’s built up an enviable CV in the years since, having toured with the likes of Matt Corby and Chris Lanzon, and collaborated on tracks with lucianblomkamp and The Kite String Tangle. Her 2018 debut EP Bold Enough was a bold statement of arrival, and acclaimed singles like ‘Circle’ and ‘Home’ quickly followed, further cementing her reputation as a masterful songwriter. It’s a skill she’s leant to others, having co-written Montaigne’s recent hit single ‘Ready’.

With effusive praise from outlets such as triple j and NME, and more than 20 million streams to date, Eliott is poised to step into stardom in 2023.