Since her days as a kid on Long Island, pop-rock singer-songwriter Julia Wolf has been fascinated by horror films. \u201cMy mom was putting on slasher films from when I was in the womb,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Over time, such grisly themes began to spill over into her music. In early 2024, she thought of the lyric \u201cI\u2019d slit my own throat just to see if you\u2019d mourn me\u201d while crafting a track about a recent ex \u2014 but then texted her sister and best friend to make sure that the line wasn\u2019t overly morbid. Soon after receiving the go-ahead, she found another lyric, \u201cI stalk myself on the internet just to see what you\u2019ll find,\u201d tucked away in her phone\u2019s Notes app. Before long, Wolf had enough material to begin recording.<\/p>\n
More from Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt was just the choice of how vulnerable I wanted to get,\u201d she recalls. \u201cIt\u2019s something that took me until my thirties to understand that that\u2019s what I want to do \u2014 be as honest as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n The resulting track, \u201cIn My Room,\u201d<\/a> has pushed the 30-year-old from the indie shadows into a hitmaker. Propelled by its niche usage by a particular cult fandom on TikTok, its following has since carried over to the Billboard charts: the grungy song has reached a No. 27 high in 17 weeks on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs<\/a> and a No. 21 high on Hot Alternative Songs<\/a>. And its success has opened doors that Wolf can hardly fathom, including an Instagram direct message from \u2014 and eventual collaboration with \u2014 Drake earlier this year, who opened their conversation by quoting lyrics from the breakthrough.<\/p>\n Raised on a steady diet of Avril Lavigne and emo music, Wolf began experimenting with music in high school at open mic nights and restaurant gigs around Queens. Debut EP Girls in Purgatory arrived in 2021 and full-length Good Thing We Stayed followed in 2023, with the latter\u2019s pop-leaning singles \u201cGet Off My\u201d and \u201cGothic Babe Tendencies\u201d with blackbear garnering buzz within the indie scene. As Wolf readied \u201cIn My Room\u201d in 2024, she teased it relentlessly on TikTok. Though heavier and darker than anything she\u2019d made before, the song quickly gained traction on the platform, thanks to Wolf tying snippets of the track to rotating images of different Twilight characters and scenes.<\/p>\n \u201cJulia is the most Twilight-obsessed person I\u2019ve ever met in my entire life,\u201d NU.WORLD Management founder Tanner Barry, Wolf\u2019s manager since 2023, says. \u201cWhen it started working, it was so easy for us to keep playing into it.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia Wolf photographed on October 20, 2025 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n Lifted by several posts of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson as Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, Wolf released the song in full in March 2024. But as the trend began to wane, funding dried-up, according to Barry. At the time, they were working with independent distributor Stem, which was hesitant to back a bigger push for \u201cIn My Room\u201d because of it being based around a timely fad, Wolf says.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the song was already out for so long, they didn\u2019t want to add any more funds to it. It was just me and Tanner thinking of what we can do to [grow] this organically.\u201d<\/p>\n She remained convinced that the Twilight universe would remain the most receptive vessels for \u201cIn My Room,\u201d and every time she continued to post the song with a clip surrounding the franchise\u2019s characters, it\u2019d rack up hundreds of thousands of views. Wolf and her team brought those stats to fellow independent distributor AWAL, and while they were in discussion, the track experienced its biggest viral wave yet, with a TikTok video<\/a> celebrating Stewart\u2019s beauty in a collage of photos. Today, the video has more than six million views. \u201cWe were all panicking like, \u2018What do we do?\u2019 \u201d Wolf remembers.<\/p>\n She quickly followed it up with a clip in the same format of Twilight co-star Ashley Greene (who portrays Alice Cullen), which has since surpassed 12 million views. Wolf and AWAL reached a deal this January, and the company helped boost Wolf\u2019s visibility, in part by funding microinfluencer campaigns. The timing of the hit\u2019s resurgence proved fortuitous: She had nearly wrapped the recording for 2025 full-length Pressure \u2014 which ultimately arrived in May \u2014 and the scorching hot single provided a push in the lead-up. Initial plans to release single \u201cJennifer\u2019s Body,\u201d a nod to a different cult fandom, were temporarily shelved, and she instead opted for an acoustic version of \u201cIn My Room\u201d in February.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s such a good singer,\u201d Barry says. \u201cI thought [the acoustic video] would be a good way to show people that she actually sounds like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia Wolf photographed on October 20, 2025 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n The following month, Drake surfaced in Wolf\u2019s DMs. According to Wolf, he discovered the song after a woman requested that he play it at a club. \u201cShout out to that girl for having my back,\u201d she says today with a laugh. The two then exchanged numbers and began to talk about making music together. Wolf recorded a few demos to send to the superstar, and one titled \u201cDog House\u201d became the winner. Wolf\u2019s raw vocal serves as the intro to the track, which erupts into a high octane rage-rap single that also features Yeat. The song arrived in September, and in turn became Wolf\u2019s first entry on the Billboard Hot 100<\/a>, peaking at No. 53.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was at probably two million monthly listeners and jumped up just shy of 10 million,\u201d Barry reflects of the A-list co-sign. \u201cWe were seeing the highest streams of [Pressure] on a daily basis. What Drake did so well, that we\u2019re so appreciative of, is he allowed [the song] to be a showcase of Julia.\u201d<\/p>\n Drake also supported Wolf in the months before its release, watching her perform at Toronto\u2019s Velvet Underground in June and sharing some advice over dinner afterward.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was expressing how everyone has access to the internet and is able to say anything they want,\u201d Wolf says. \u201cThe loudest people aren\u2019t the right people, but it just feels that way. I get so in my head about internet comments and people being mean. He can definitely relate to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia Wolf photographed on October 20, 2025 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n But even with a coveted Drake collaboration opening up an entirely new fan base, Wolf remains devoted to the crowd that got her to this moment: In August, she performed an intimate showcase for 60 fans in Forks, Washington, at the location used for Bella Swan\u2019s home in the Twilight movies. And her star only continues to grow: She released 2MUCHPRESSURE, a remix EP helmed by producer duo 2DUMB on Halloween and will begin touring arenas in support of mgk later this month.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat helps me stay grounded is that \u2018In My Room\u2019 existed for so long when nobody cared,\u201d Wolf says. \u201cI truly believe that any song that I believe in can work. It just needs all these factors to get it to click.\u201d<\/p>\n A version of this story appears in the Nov. 15, 2025, issue of Billboard.<\/p>\n Best of Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Billboard’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/span><\/div>\n
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