Zarah Sultana

AS DECEMBER 2020 RUMBLED INTO VIEW, Twitter was abound with people sharing their end-of-year stats from Spotify. Labour MP Zarah Sultana was no different. She posted a screenshot of her most-played artists, along with the caption: “It is what it is innit.” The graphic that accompanied the tweet painted quite the picture.

At number four of her top five sat Lewis Capaldi. An embarrassing entry for a middle-aged suburban mum, let alone a 27-year-old woman. Next was One Direction, a band popular with 12-year-olds a decade previously. Placed above them was Taylor Swift, a woman who – in my humble opinion – had a standout year and represented an honourable addition to the list. But beating her to number one spot was Korean boy band BTS. It was a brave post for the her to make, given the average age of BTS fans resides somewhere in the teens. People responded to the tweet with gentle digs. “You’re so basic I love it,” read one. Another, slightly less forgiving, noted: “Your politics over your music then.”

A couple of months later, I sat down with Zarah over Zoom. I started the call with the intention of talking cold politics, but arrived swiftly at the subject of music. For Zarah, though, there is a key link between the two. “We have to be unashamedly us!” she says, referring to her Spotify list. “I think that is a radical act. Capitalism profits on our insecurities. My whole algorithm is telling me to get a nose