At just 17 years old, Sydney Cope has already learned to express herself through multiple outlets.

Her singing career began in her hometown of Denton, TX where she would perform at a small music academy. Her first performance was a Christmas showcase where she sang “I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas” and knew that the stage was where she was meant to be.

“From that show I realized that I loved performing for people on stage,” she said.

Over the years, she focused on developing herself as an artist in a multitude of ways, including mastering the guitar, piano, and studying vocals and songwriting. She found inspiration in artists that dominated the pop genre and focused her sound on an intersection of radio-ready pop melodies, deeply introspective songwriting and soulful urban stylings.

Her debut single, “Watch Out For Me”, is the first of several singles that she plans to drop throughout the year. “Watch Out For Me” is a not-so-subtle warning to the one that wronged her, and listeners can sense the culmination of suspicion, exposure and punishment bubbling to the surface in the chorus.

“This song is a powerful song, emotionally and rhythmically, so I felt it would capture the listener’s attention with the catchy and meaningful melody,” she said. “My hope is to have them connect in some way with the story in their own version takeaway from my song.”

Before expressing herself through music, Cope was also a dancer. Her love for dance started when she was only 2 years old; she said that “dancing is my body expressing my emotions” and continues to evolve in both training and teaching choreography.

Cope also dabbles in acting, where she’s been in projects such as SKAM Austin and The Price of Fame.

Through all her outlets, she focuses on the storytelling aspect of them and uses that to command her presence. As she continues to express herself through singing, dancing and acting, Sydney Cope’s story is one that listeners will be begging to hear again and again.