Troye Sivan has spent the last two decades collecting identities. Child actor. Teen vlogger. Model. Pop star. On his fourth studio album, She's the Best, released October 9 via Interscope, the 31-year-old Australian adds another layer: the most honest version of himself yet.
FROM RUSH TO RECKONING
His previous record, 2023's Something to Give Each Other, was a breakthrough. Sleek, high-BPM and unapologetically sexy, it spawned viral hits in "Rush" and "Got Me Started," earned three Grammy nominations, and led to the Sweat Tour alongside Charli XCX, which turned arenas into strobe-lit nightclubs. By any measure, Sivan had arrived.
But beneath the bravado, something else was happening. "I was having these experiences of being on stage and feeling like this really self-actualised version of myself," Sivan told NPR. "Then I would go home to the hotel and at times, honestly, feeling the most isolated that I felt in my life." That tension, between the euphoria of performance and the solitude that follows, became the creative engine for She's the Best.
THE COLLABORATORS
Sivan assembled a trusted circle for the project. Jack Antonoff, his collaborator since 2015 debut Blue Neighbourhood, returns alongside longtime writing partner Leland. His brother Tyde Levi contributes production for the first time, co-producing three tracks from what started as bedroom demos. The cast also includes Allie X, Charli XCX, and Styalz Fuego, making the credit list feel less like a roster and more like a group chat.
The album's two preview singles map its emotional range. The title track, released in August with a music video starring Nicole Kidman, is a moody tribute to the women who have shaped Sivan's life. "Party," which followed in September, builds on a prominent sample of Madonna's 2000 hit "Music" and features a voiceover from Sir Ian McKellen, whom a 14-year-old Sivan once acted alongside in a production of Waiting for Godot.
QUEER DANCE FLOORS AND INNER ROOMS
What makes She's the Best compelling is its refusal to pick a side. The album swings between bombastic club tracks and intimate, near-whispered confessions, sometimes within the same song. Sivan describes it as intentional whiplash, a reflection of life lived between the dance floor and the hotel room.
The record draws from a wide sonic palette, from The Avalanches to King Krule, Arthur Russell to Kylie Minogue. It is alternative pop with trip-hop textures, a long way from the polished synth anthems of his earlier work. The closing track, "Lost Time," is what Sivan calls a manifestation song, written to someone he has not yet met. "Someday soon I wanna meet ya," he sings, turning longing into something that sounds almost like hope.
BEYOND THE MUSIC
Sivan's reach now extends well beyond streaming numbers. He was named to the 2026 TIME100 Next list, earned four nominations at this year's ARIA Awards, and recently appeared in Prada's Fall/Winter 2026 "Simple Stories" campaign alongside Hunter Schafer. At the VMAs in September, he walked the red carpet in a feathered Erdem ensemble that channeled Bjork's iconic swan dress. He is, increasingly, a full-spectrum cultural figure.
But it is the album that matters most here. She's the Best is the work of someone who has stopped trying to be one thing at a time. It holds the party and the quiet after, the confidence and the doubt, the love letter and the confession. In a pop landscape that often rewards consistency over complexity, Sivan has chosen the harder path. The result is his most layered and revealing record yet.