Must-listen-to Thai artists who sing in English

There is no version of this article that doesn't include Lalisa Manobal. Born in Buriram, Thailand, Lisa became YG Entertainment's first non-ethnically Korean trainee before debuting as BLACKPINK's main rapper and lead dancer in 2016. Her 2021 solo single ‘Lalisa’ and its follow-up ‘Money’ – which holds the record as the first K-pop solo track to surpass one billion Spotify streams – announced a solo career that was always going to be on its own terms. In 2025, those terms became fully visible with Alter Ego, her debut studio album released February 28. The lead single ‘Rockstar’ debuted at number one on the Billboard Global Ex-US chart. The album's fourth single ‘Born Again,’ featuring Doja Cat and RAYE, hit the Billboard Hot 100 and became the most-added song at Top 40 radio in the US in the week of its release. The record also features collaborations with Rosalía, Tyla, Megan Thee Stallion and Future. Lisa performed at the 97th Academy Awards, headlined Coachella as a solo artist and is currently acting in HBO's The White Lotus. The word ‘global’ gets thrown around a lot in music coverage. In this case it's simply accurate.

The most glaring omission from the original version of this list. Danupha Khanatheerakul – MILLI – became the first Thai solo artist to perform at Coachella in April 2022, at 19 years old. The moment she ate mango sticky rice on stage mid-performance became a viral clip around the world; the Thai government briefly floated the idea of nominating the dish for UNESCO intangible cultural heritage status off the back of it. MILLI raps across Thai dialects, Isan, Lu, Northern Thai and English, often within a single track. In 2022 she appeared on the BBC's 100 Women list. Her 2024 debut album First, Last, and Everything In Between was followed by the 2025 sophomore record Heavyweight, promoted with a Times Square billboard in New York. She also competed in Muay Thai at Lumpinee Stadium in May 2025, and appeared as a global contestant on Korean rap competition Show Me The Money 12 in 2026. She is the most culturally active Thai artist working right now, across more disciplines than most people will track.

Phum Viphurit moved from Bangkok to Hamilton, New Zealand at nine years old. His family's new neighbours complained about the drums, so he picked up a guitar instead – a small piece of domestic inconvenience that may have quietly shaped Thai indie-folk for years to come. His 2018 breakout single ‘Lover Boy’ introduced him to international audiences and the momentum has never really stopped. His 2024 EP Paul Vibhavadi Vol. 1, released on October 17, is a four-track concept record built around an alter ego: a bilingual sloth named Paul Vibhavadi – a riff on his own initials, PV, and Vibhavadi Road in Bangkok – searching for inner peace through early 2000s-influenced house music. It's the kind of project that shouldn't work on paper but lands completely because Phum commits to the absurdity with full sincerity. His collaboration on the EP with TangBadVoice, one of the Thai rap scene's most interesting voices, only adds to the intrigue.

Jeff Satur's heritage takes in Thai, Italian, Indian and Chinese roots, and his music reflects a similarly layered approach to genre – pop, R&B, rock, hip-hop and 1980s-influenced production all in regular rotation. He came to international attention through his role in the 2022 Thai drama KinnPorsche and has since built a music career that far exceeds the usual actor-turned-singer trajectory. His debut album Space Shuttle No. 8, released in 2024, surpassed 200 million streams and won Best Album of the Year at the Spotify Wrapped Live Awards that year. In 2025 he released the English single ‘Ride or Die’ and starred in The Paradise of Thorns, a Thai social commentary film that travelled well internationally. In March 2026, he performed at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles as part of the Global Spin Live series – becoming the first Thai artist to do so. The 200-seat Clive Davis Theater sold out in under two minutes.

Violette Wautier has been doing this longer than most. Born in Yokohama to a Thai mother and Belgian father, she came to national attention in 2013 as a contestant on The Voice Thailand and has been steadily building an international audience ever since. Her track ‘Smoke’ became one of the most-streamed English-language songs by a Thai artist, racking up over 90 million plays and setting the stage for her first full English album, Glitter and Smoke, in 2020. Four years later came Call Me Dramatic, a seven-track EP released in October 2024 that leans into a punchier, more self-assured pop sound. Between the two releases she performed at Japan's Summer Sonic 2024, one of Asia's biggest annual festivals – a moment that said more about where she stands globally than any press release could. She has spoken about writing in English as something that feels liberating, less constrained than Thai. That freedom shows in the music.

Formed in 2010 by vocalist Third, guitarist Billy and drummer-rapper Milo during their university years, Tilly Birds have spent the last decade building a devoted domestic fanbase and are now – deliberately – extending their reach beyond Thailand. Their sophomore album It's Gonna Be OK was included in NME's Top 25 Best Asian Albums of 2021 and they swept the major categories at the TOTY Awards that year. In April 2024 they released ‘White Pills,’ their first all-English track, followed by ‘Retro-39’ later that year. In September 2025 they released ‘Heaven,’ a collaboration with Filipino folk-pop band Ben&Ben that was co-written during a two-day song camp in Manila. Their third studio album I'll Remember To Forget You followed in January 2026. They are one of the few Thai acts openly preparing a full English-language release for an international market, and they have enough of a live reputation across Asia and Australia to back it up.

Before anyone else on this list was doing it, Tata Young was making the argument that Thai pop had global potential. The teen idol of 1990s Thailand stepped onto the international stage with her English debut album I Believe in 2004, and it landed hard across Southeast and South Asia. The title track went to number one in Hong Kong and was later selected as the official theme song of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. ‘Dhoom Dhoom,’ a Bollywood-inflected banger with a music video featuring Indian film stars, earned her an MTV Immies Award for Indian Music Excellence and cemented her status as a pan-Asian pop figure at a time when that phrase meant something specific and hard-won. Everything that has come since in Thai English-language pop has, in some way, been building on the path Tata Young cleared.

One of the few Thai bands operating genuinely in the synth-pop space, Telex Telexs take heavy influence from Japan's 1980s electronic era and filter it through a very Bangkok sensibility. Their 2018 album Enough for Loneliness and Internet Today was a quietly sharp piece of work on social media fatigue – a concept that felt ahead of its time and still lands. Their first English-language EP, Yes! I'm 25 and Single, arrived in 2019 with standout tracks like ‘June’ and ‘Rain,’ each carrying that signature sweet-sad texture the band does better than almost anyone else in the region. They’re a slow-burn, but a rewarding one.

Happy Three Friends – H3F – began as exactly that: three friends running jam sessions in 2017 with no particular agenda. What emerged over time is a tight, joyful blend of pop, funk and R&B, entirely in English and consistently well-executed. Their EPs Cheesy Lyrics, Sloppy Groove and Family Product map out a band finding its voice and having fun doing it. They represent a strand of the Bangkok indie-English scene that prioritises groove over grand concepts  – and there is real value in that. Worth adding: their collaborative track ‘Cultivation’ with Benjamin Varney in 2022 is a good entry point for anyone not sure where to start.

Thanapat Bunleang was born in Khon Kaen but raised in Stockholm from the age of eight, which explains a great deal about his music and why it lands so differently from anything else coming out of Thailand. As a member of the Swedish collective Drain Gang – alongside Bladee, Ecco2k and Whitearmor – he has been a recognised figure in underground Western rap circles for over a decade. His 2022 album Back 2 Life was reviewed by Pitchfork and named one of Dazed's best albums of the year. His 2025 release DYR, recorded under the alias DJ Billybool, blends Thai electronic genre 3cha with eurodance and has been described as ‘globalist hyperpop.’ His 2026 album Paradise, made with production collective swedm®, continues in that transnational club direction. He is the Thai artist most respected in Western underground circles, and the only one whose career has unfolded largely outside the Thai music industry altogether.

Swiss-Thai rapper Tobias – TOBII – grew up shuttling between Bangkok and Switzerland before settling in Thailand once a local fanbase started forming around his early R&B releases in 2021. Def Jam Thailand came calling in March 2023, and he made his first official appearance as a Def Jam artist at Rolling Loud Thailand that April. His 2024 single ‘Bad Girls Like You’ went viral on TikTok, charted at number 13 on Spotify's Daily Viral 50 and reached number one on the iTunes R&B/Soul chart. His most recent release is ‘Bad Girls Like You (English Version)’ featuring DOLLA, from 2025. His sound – warm, melodic, somewhere between Chris Brown and PartyNextDoor – has found a natural home in Bangkok nightlife as well as on streaming. He is one of the more recognisable names in this scene for anyone following Thai R&B.

Gavin Duval, better known as GAVIN:D, is a Thai-British artist best known as a member of Bangkok's rap scene and a former member of the early T-pop trio 3.2.1. He has been rapping professionally since the early 2010s and returned to music with real purpose in 2018 with his EP Project Jing Di, which featured collaborations with Ben Bizzy and FIIXD. His 2020 album Family is Forever – which he produced and executive produced himself – ranges from romantic synth-pop to trap without ever quite losing its thread. He has continued releasing music through 2024, including features and collaborative singles, and remains an important bridge between the older Thai hip-hop establishment and the newer, younger wave. His bilingual ease and long track record give the scene credibility that newer artists can lean on.

Based in Chiang Mai, YONLAPA are a four-piece indie band – vocalist Noi Naa, synth player Gunn, bassist Nawin and drummer Fewchy – who have been making entirely English-language music since their debut in 2019. Their early singles ‘U’ and ‘Let Me Go’ drew comparisons to Phum Viphurit and HYBS; ‘Let Me Go’ amassed two million YouTube views and established the band well beyond their home city. NME described their 2021 EP First Trip as ‘a journey through the tender landscapes of dream pop and shoegaze.’ Their 2023 full-length Lingering Gloaming and their 2024 Japan tour – in partnership with Japanese label BIG ROMANTIC RECORDS – represent a band that has been slowly, methodically building exactly the kind of international presence this article is about. Their October 2025 EP Velvet Petals is the latest instalment. They're one of the scene's clearest examples of what patient, consistent work looks like.

There are very few artists in Thai music with a background quite like Tsunari's. Born in Northampton, UK, to a Thai mother and a British-Trinidadian father, she grew up in Korat and moved to London in 2015 specifically to pursue music. She credits London's underground – neo-soul, grime, UK drill – as the sonic education she couldn't have received anywhere else. The result is a voice and a sensibility that draws on all of it: she has described her sound as what you'd get if ‘Rihanna, Doja Cat and Jhené Aiko were stranded on an island in Phuket and had to make music together,’ which is a sentence that earns the image. Her 2023 EP Party With Nari is her most cohesive project to date. In November 2024 she served as MTV's backstage host at Rolling Loud Thailand, cementing her role not just as an artist but as a visible figure in the wider ecosystem. Genuinely bicultural, genuinely bilingual – and one of the more underrated names on this entire list.

pami – Pamiga Sooksawee – is one of the most compelling new voices in Thai English-language pop and arrived with little warning. After a period living in London where she found her footing as a songwriter, she released her debut EP out of nowhere in 2024 under the JUICEY label, featuring tracks like ‘Covent Garden’ and ‘pity dirty.’ Her first full album, puffette, followed in 2025 and earned her the Best Hidden Gem of the Year prize at Thailand's TOTY Music Awards. She has since played LaLaLa Festival in Indonesia, BiKN Shibuya in Japan, Zandari Festa in South Korea and Bangkok Music City. She writes entirely in English, and has been candid about why: writing in Thai feels harder, more constrained. She cites James Alyn of HYBS as a direct influence. pami's Spotify Radio playlist sits her alongside mindfreakk! and James Alyn – a constellation of Bangkok indie-English artists who all know each other and are quietly defining what this scene sounds like in its newest iteration.

Ray Jay Rangsit – Réjizz – is the most distinctive sound in Bangkok hip-hop right now, and the credentials to back that up are increasingly hard to ignore. Trained at Bournemouth University in the UK and Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Communication Arts back in Bangkok, he has been releasing music since 2017. His ‘Thai-Funk’ signature – jazz phrasing, deep soul textures and Mo Lam rhythms folded into contemporary hip-hop and R&B – is genuinely his own, not a borrowed aesthetic. He moves between Thai and English naturally, and his track ‘Superstar’ drew the kind of response that suggests he is arriving at something. He is Thailand's Hip-Hop Artist of the Year and, more significantly, the first Thai artist to sign with Marshall Records – the speaker company turned music label, which gives him international distribution and industry standing that independent Bangkok artists rarely access. If you are looking for one name on this list that represents where Thai English-language hip-hop is capable of going, it's this one.

Born in Chelsea, London, raised in Chiang Mai and now based in Bangkok, Benjamin Varney has the kind of multicultural biography that makes almost anything he releases feel authentically lived-in. Signed to Rats Records – the same label as Phum Viphurit – he debuted as a solo artist in February 2021 with the English single ‘Thai Tea,’ a breezy R&B-inflected track that leans affectionately into his dual identity. His song titles – Thai Tea, Umami Sayz, Salvador Sawasdee – tell you something about his sensibility: playful, specific, never trying too hard. His 2022 collaboration ‘Cultivation’ with H3F places him firmly within the inner circle of Bangkok's indie-English scene. He released ‘Umami Sayz’ in 2025 and ‘Salvador Sawasdee’ in 2026, continuing a body of work that grows without rushing. He is the kind of artist that rewards repeat listening: a slow-burn discovery rather than an obvious headline.

Few bands have been doing this as quietly and consistently as temp. The Bangkok five-piece – whose members have overlapping histories with other influential bands including Part Time Musicians and Summer Dress – debuted in March 2017 with ‘Moonshine,’ a track that was selected as Fungjai's best music video of the year and introduced the phrase ‘tropical pop’ as a shorthand for their sound: bright melodies, romantic lyrics, instruments that feel warm rather than polished. Their 2025 EP Patina, released under Sony Music Thailand, marks a shift toward more introspective material without abandoning what made them worth following in the first place. They are one of the oldest names in Thai indie-English music and, eight years in, still evolving.

KIKI are a three-piece Bangkok band built around the voice of Helena, lead singer and primary songwriter, alongside guitarists Boss and Non. They debuted on July 1, 2021 with the English single ‘My World’ under Parinam Music, and their catalogue has stayed resolutely English-language since. Sonically they sit somewhere between alternative pop, indie R&B and disco – a range that shouldn't feel cohesive but does, largely because Helena's voice has an unusual quality: bittersweet and warm at the same time, reminiscent of early-2000s indie pop without being deliberately retro.

Independent Thai singer-songwriter and actress, mindfreakk! – real name Mind – debuted in May 2021 with the English single ‘Have You Ever’ and has been building a catalogue of emotionally driven, entirely English-language indie pop ever since. A graduate of Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Communication Arts, she remains a consistent contributor to Bangkok's indie-English scene and one of its emerging voices worth keeping an eye on.

MAKARA are a four-member independent band from Bangkok who have been releasing entirely English-language music since their debut EP in September 2019. Their 2024 album Strawberry Mind and 2025 follow-up Ngong Ngong demonstrate a band in steady forward motion, with singles like ‘Gypsy Treatment,’ ‘Toy’ and ‘I'm a Trash’ showing an alternative-indie-rock sensibility that sits outside the more pop-oriented mainstream of this scene. One notable detail: their bassist, D, is a virtual artist – a deliberate aesthetic choice that signals the band's interest in blurring creative and technological boundaries.

Varis is a Thai-American singer, songwriter and producer from Bangkok who has been releasing music under his own name since 2019, across two full albums – will u? (2020) and supervillain (2023) – and a 2024 collaborative project, supervillain and friends. He describes his sound as ‘Alternative Pop’ and means it broadly: rock, R&B, funk, electronics and old-school hip-hop all feed into a catalogue that doesn't hold still. He produces everything himself, which gives his output a particular consistency of voice even when the genre is shifting underneath it. Independently run, genuinely bicultural, and the kind of artist who makes a longer-form playlist about this scene sound more interesting.

Chiang Mai-based rapper Vega CNX – the CNX in the name is Chiang Mai's airport code – represents the decentralised, city-specific end of this scene. While the Bangkok industry machine produces most of the names on this list, Vega comes from a northern underground that runs on its own energy, connected to the city's live venues and its own distinct rap ecosystem. His following is grassroots, his output is English-language, and he is the kind of emerging name that a well-researched article about this scene should be surfacing before the rest of the music press catches up. One to watch.

Another active name in this scene's emerging tier, GYMV is building a following on the strength of their English-language music and social media output. Limited external coverage is not a strike against them – it is precisely the point of including them here. This is an artist at the stage where discovery is still possible, still meaningful, and still happening one listener at a time.