Sam Quealy ft Marlon Magnée – By My Side
Today, techno-pop princess Sam Quealy shares new single “By My Side” featuring Marlon Magnée (from the band La Femme) off her upcoming sophomore album JAWBREAKER, out January 30. Full of roaring grooves, the track is a gallivanting love story that’s punctuated by Quealy and Magnée’s exquisite chemistry.
Quealy explains the soul of the single is about “finding someone who makes life feel brighter and less lonely, sharing a deep connection that turns the chaos of the world into a beautiful ride together.” The accompanying video matches the Euro-disco sound perfectly as Quealy and Magnée, decked out in 70’s styles, sing and frolic in a vintage recording studio.
Sam Quealy is a fearless creative chameleon—singer, songwriter, dancer, rapper, and performance artist. Known for her unhinged tracks and magnetic, almost otherworldly aura, she leaves audiences unable to forget her. With the look of a pop star and the attitude of a rock star, she has exploded onto the scene with a deafening bang—and she’s only just getting started.
Her debut album Blonde Venus earned widespread acclaim, with features in Vogue France, Harper’s Bazaar France, Les Inrocks, Metal Magazine and more, alongside TV appearances on Quotidien and Arte. She has delivered standout performances at major festivals including Solidays, Dour, Fusion, Flow, and the Montreux Jazz Festival, while touring internationally as a support act for Yelle and La Femme.
In a departure from the volatile techno-pop of Blonde Venus, Quealy sculpted the lavish sound of her sophomore album, JAWBREAKER, with abundant use of live instrumentation, lending a potent luminosity to the project’s songs on lust, longing, and self-celebration. “With the first album there was a lot of discovery and experimentation—I wasn’t following any rules, and it feels very niche and underground,” says Quealy. “This album still has the nihilistic feel of the first record, but there’s a lightness and positivity as well. When there’s so much depressing news all the time, I wanted to create something that makes everyone feel good.”
A multidimensional creative force, Quealy played a vital part in developing the music videos for JAWBREAKER, embedding each visual with the type of outlandishly striking images that immediately become iconic (e.g., a whirlwind motorcycle chase in “LONDONTOWN,” a scene where she faces off against a pack of male bodybuilders in “LOVE LASSO”). As with all her videos (as well as her mesmerizing live performance), Quealy infuses both visuals with frenetic yet highly sophisticated choreography—an element that spotlights the exquisite dancing prowess she’s cultivated her entire life.
Upon moving to Paris in the late 2010s, Quealy worked as a showgirl at a cabaret but soon pursued her lifelong love of music. “At first I was mostly experimenting with writing lyrics, but during Covid I picked up guitar, learned piano, learned how to use Ableton,” she recalls. “It felt like I was able to take everything I loved—music, dance, performance art, fashion—and pour it all into one medium where there’s no rules or limits on what you can create.” Before even releasing her debut album, Quealy earned acclaim from tastemakers like Office Magazine, who praised her “dystopian club bangers” and noted that her music “represents the collective mindset of a generation that has come of age in an increasingly unstable world.”
Her music continues to resonate far beyond the stage, with high-profile syncs for Netflix (Élite, Under a Dark Sun), Swarovski, and Babybel’s 2025 global campaign. With more than 150K combined followers and listeners, Sam Quealy’s star is rising fast—her magnetic energy proving impossible to ignore. #samquealy