Royal & The Serpent Enters a New Era with Cinematic Debut Album 'Emptiness is Godly'
- Jaimie Cubitt
- Mar 2
- 3 min read
Royal & the Serpent is stepping boldly into a new era. The genre-blurring singer-songwriter has announced her long-awaited debut full-length album, Emptiness is Godly, arriving May 8, 2026 via Atlantic Records. The reveal comes alongside a gripping double single release — “Favorite Person” and “Fiona” — offering the first glimpse into the expansive, emotionally charged universe she’s carefully constructed.
Anchored by sweeping, cinematic visuals for “Favorite Person,” the album introduction is more than a rollout — it’s an invitation. With Emptiness is Godly, Royal & the Serpent delivers a fully immersive conceptual narrative, weaving together layered soundscapes and intimate lyricism to tell the story of a shadowy protagonist known only as “R.” The record unfolds like a psychological coming-of-age tale, exploring the fragile space between longing and self-awareness, chaos and clarity.
“‘Favorite Person’ is a big reveal as we enter into the world of Emptiness is Godly,” Royal shares. “This song is the underlying theme to our story. Main character ‘R’ finds herself entangled between two romances.” The track pulses with tension and vulnerability, capturing emotional duality through sharp alternative production and raw confession. “Subject ‘R’ exhibits as follows (but not limited to): confusion, guilt, self-awareness, remorse.”
Its companion, “Fiona,” drifts into softer yet equally devastating territory. “‘Fiona’ is ‘R’’s experience of nostalgia,” she explains. “Subject ‘R’ exhibits as follows (but not limited to): yearning, benevolence, grief, hope.” Together, the two songs frame the emotional thesis of the album — a meditation on attachment, identity, and the quiet devastation of memory.
The announcement follows a milestone year for the artist. In 2025, she joined select dates of the revived Vans Warped Tour and released fan favorites “Young As This” and “Euphoria,” continuing to solidify her place as one of alternative music’s most magnetic outliers. With more than 900 million global streams — and rapidly approaching the billion mark — Royal’s rise has been anything but conventional.
Her live resume is equally formidable. She’s shared stages with genre heavyweights including Fall Out Boy, Avril Lavigne, Demi Lovato, and Bring Me The Horizon — a testament to her cross-genre appeal and undeniable stage presence.
Since her Atlantic debut with 2020’s get a grip, Royal has carved out a space defined by fearless honesty and emotional extremity. The EP featured her breakout, RIAA Gold-certified single “Overwhelmed,” which spent 22 weeks climbing Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart and introduced the world to her unfiltered introspection. She expanded that vision with 2022’s IF I DIED WOULD ANYONE CARE and Happiness Is An Inside Job, pushing further into themes of anxiety, mortality, and self-reckoning.
Along the way, she’s collaborated with boundary-pushing peers including GAYLE on the biting anthem “kinda smacks,” and The Beaches on “Blame Brett.” Her haunting single “Wasteland,” featured on the Arcane: League of Legends soundtrack, amassed over 115 million global streams and culminated in a powerful live performance at The Game Awards in December 2024.
Through it all, Royal & the Serpent has built more than a fanbase — she’s cultivated a community drawn to her volatile blend of fragility and defiance. Her songwriting reads like pages torn from a diary, yet resonates on a universal scale.
“The main reason I make music is that it’s the best therapy I could ever ask for,” she says. “The process of taking everything in my brain and putting it on paper and then singing it out loud for people is so helpful and healing for me. The idea that my own expression can affect people in positive ways is such a blessing and a gift; I don’t ever take it lightly. I just want to keep telling my truth and reach as many people as I possibly can, and see where this little journey takes us.”
With Emptiness is Godly, Royal & the Serpent doesn’t just turn the page — she tears it out, sets it ablaze, and invites listeners to step inside the smoke.
