10 tracks you might not know SOPHIE produced

SOPHIE’s undisputed legacy as one of Scotland’s greatest dance music talents lives on years after her tragic death in 2021, and on what would have been her 38th birthday today (September 17), the ripple effect of her pioneering work is still felt. Whether that’s the countless tributes flooding in today on social media or the SOPHIE-honouring Google Doodle appearing on the homepage of the world’s largest search engine, the late DJ and producer leaves a legacy untouched.

At the end of September, a posthumous album from SOPHIE is due for release. It marks the second studio album (there was also the 2015 'Product' compilation) and final record from the producer, and appearing on the eponymous release is a star-studded selection of collaborators from Kim Petras to Evita Manji, and more to be announced over the coming weeks. In its wake, SOPHIE’s family told the press that the project was brought to fruition by contacting “the dear friends with whom she envisioned the album”, and now stands as a means to tell her life story, “from mysterious unknown, through wild clublands, to euphoric immateriality.”

But SOPHIE wasn’t just known for her own productions. Over the years, she worked closely with producers and big-name stars as a co-producer on their hit tracks, from the likes of Charli xcx to Madonna, giving many that recognisable SOPHIE shimmer. After her death, Rihanna posted photos of the pair working together in the studio, and while SOPHIE was never credited as a producer on any of Rihanna's tracks, fans speculated that the photo was taken while working together on a remix of the pop star’s 2017 track ‘Nothing Is Promised’ with Mike WiLL Made-It, which was released unofficially with a guest verse from Young Thug. SOPHIE was also one of the first collaborators to work on early sessions of Lady Gaga’s 2020 album ‘Chromatica’, but while the tracks she worked on were never finished, producer BloodPop said in a 2020 interview with Entertainment Weekly that they may still appear as part of the 'Chromatica’ universe.

In honour of what would have been SOPHIE’s 38th birthday, we’re looking back at some of the best tracks produced and co-produced by the Scottish pioneer over the years, and a few unexpected ones you might not have known. Check them out below.

Despite dividing opinions upon release, this track has arguably become Charli xcx's most influential single. Starring angular, jagged, squealing synths, it became a blueprint which fed the explosion of the then-nascent hyperpop movement. Its impact was so undeniable that Pitchfork even walked back on an infamously negative review with a positive reappraisal. As ever, SOPHIE was miles ahead.

Hip hop purists seemed to struggle to connect with Vince Staples' second album 'Big Fish Theory', but for those with a broader palette that included a taste for dance music, it was a club-rap masterpiece that melded styles such as house, techno and more experimental electronic production with the Long Beach rappers' distinctive alt-rap stylings. Naturally, SOPHIE was involved, working on two of the LP's tracks, including the boisterous 'Yeah Right', co-produced with Flume, that hits hard on a soundsystem.

Tweets from Vince Staples after her passing said it best: "Sophie was different you ain’t never seen somebody in the studio smoking a cigarette in a leather bubble jacket just making beats not saying one word," he wrote, adding: "And don’t let the verse be deep or heartfelt cause she stopping the computer and walking outside until you get bacc on some gangsta shit".

In 2018, unlikely collaborators Let’s Eat Grandma and SOPHIE teamed up with Faris Badwan of The Horrors on a joint single, 'Hot Pink'. Met with critical acclaim after its release, the track was taken from the second studio album from the avant-pop duo, then just 19 years old. SOPHIE brought a classic PC Music-adjacent touch to the release, a track that muses on the “misconceptions of femininity and masculinity”. Speaking on the single to Pilerats, the duo explained: “Previous to working with Faris and SOPHIE, we’d never done any writing collaborations before, so it was an interesting new experience for us. All four of us have different strengths and influences when it comes to production and songwriting.”

Yep, that’s right, the queen of pop and the princess of pop come together on one track. Despite Diplo gaining the spotlight as the main credit across most sites for ‘Bitch I'm Madonna’, music licencing company ASCAP proves that this track wouldn't be what it is today without the help of SOPHIE’s co-productions. Encapsulating the colourful pop world of 2015, Madonna and Nicki Minaj's single worked its way up Billboard's Hot 100. SOPHIE told The Guardian around the time of the track’s release: "Working with [Madonna] was really quite a one-off, spontaneous thing – I suppose a happy coincidence. I felt a connection with the title. But you have to prevent yourself from getting too excited about that kind of thing. People still write about that song in every article they write about me, so I guess she still means a lot to everyone operating in music right now.”

This collab skyrocketed the career of LA pop artist LIZ, earning her critical acclaim and high profile TV syncs. It's no surprise the track was so popular: it was quintessential mid-10s SOPHIE: bubbling with an infectious, effervescent energy, with the OTT pop sheen made almost uncanny by the staccato lyrics and rubbery, collapsing textures.

Marking Camila Cabello’s first solo feature after leaving Fifth Harmony, this 2017 single from Norwegian DJ and producer Cashmere Cat has SOPHIE’s unmistakable presence all over it. This track is a glitchy, synthy, electropop ball of chaos.

Co-produced by Benny Blanco, Cashmere Cat and SOPHIE, this release from MØ came crashing onto the scene in 2017 with its powerful pop-esque style blurred with SOPHIE and Cashmere Cat’s electronic flair and even went on to jump into the UK Dance Top 40.

Appearing on the first of a surprise series of albums from Venezuela's Arca in 2020, ‘La Chíqui’ enlisted the help of fellow producer SOPHIE, bringing together the pair’s experimental sensibilities on a glitchy but glittering dance music track. Speaking on the collaboration after its release, Arca admitted: “This track to me is bananas. I love SOPHIE and I was like, ‘If we do a track together, it has to be crazy’”. Arca explained the beauty of working “with another trans woman” on the single, adding: “So much of SOPHIE is in that track — not just her vocals but also the sonics. It was very collaborative.”

In 2019, SOPHIE joined forces with Australia’s Flume on his first experimental-leaning mixtape ‘Hi This Is Flume', featuring as a guest producer and writer alongside Kučka on the track ‘Voices’. SOPHIE ended up appearing twice on the mixtape, with an additional remix by Flume and Eprom of her 2018 track ‘Is It Cold In The Water?’, taken from her debut album.

A track that screams SOPHIE, ‘Slime’ is a club-fuelled single that helped to boost the early career of Shygirl. The music video also features SOPHIE as well as Arca, Mowalola, Ms Carrie Stacks, and others. Sadly, ‘Slime’ was the last track SOPHIE produced before her untimely death, released in 2020.