Bella Poarch

Early life and military career Poarch was born Belinda Marie Macadengdeng Batumbakal on February 9, 1997, in the Philippines. She was raised by her grandmother in slums until the age of three and was then adopted.

At age 13, Poarch and her family (with exception of her sisters who still reside in the Philippines) moved to San Francisco to reside with her aunt for several months, before moving to Texas Poarch is a United States Navy veteran, enlisting in the Navy in 2017 as an aviation ordnanceman. She served for three years, having been stationed in Japan and Hawaii.

Career

2020–2021: Rise to fame with TikTok In January 2020, Poarch created her TikTok account. She started actively posting gaming and cosplay content on TikTok in April 2020. She gained notability in August 2020, when her lip sync videos went viral, most notably a video where she is lip-syncing to "M to the B" by Millie B. The zoomed-in video of her lip-syncing and rhythmically bouncing her head to the song went viral and became TikTok's most liked video of all time. Following her TikTok success, she launched a YouTube channel and Twitter page.

Poarch is also associated with her alpaca stuffed toy. In 2020, she released a limited clothing line RIPNDIP x Paca Collaboration.

In December 2020, Poarch's popularity peaked when she reportedly grabbed the interest of two large professional Esports organizations, 100 Thieves and FaZe Clan, which apparently showed interest in her, a live streamer and gamer, as a content creator under their respective banners.

In May 2021, Poarch signed a record deal with Warner Records. On May 14, Poarch released her debut single "Build a Bitch." She stated that the song was inspired by her experiences with being bullied as a child, disclosing "Growing up, I used to get bullied and stuff... I wanted my first song to have a good meaning to it and to help a lot of people just to be like, more confident about themselves." The associated music video was described by Billboard as "an audacious, darkly comic slice of new-school pop," created with Daniel Virgil Maisonneuve, the producer-songwriter better known as Sub Urban.

On an episode of the 100 Thieves podcast The CouRage and Nadeshot Show, Poarch stated that she has wanted to become a singer since she was a child.

2022: Dolls Poarch released her first EP, Dolls, on August 12, 2022. It includes her previous singles – "Build a Bitch," "Inferno," and "Dolls" – as well as new tracks "Villain," "No Man's Land," and "Living Hell." A music video for "Living Hell" debuted alongside the EP. In addition to co-starring in the music video for "Dolls," Grimes features on "No Man's Land." Rolling Stone praised the dark pop tone of the EP. "Villain" would be used for WWE's Extreme Rules premium live event in 2022.

Poarch released a song and music video with Lauv on September 15, 2023, titled "Crush," followed by "Bad Boy" on November 10. A remix of the latter with the Mexican youtuber and singer Kenia OS was released on December 10. In 2024 she released a collaboration with the American singer 6arelyhuman, "Don't Like Anybody." Poarch featured on the song "F*CK OFF" for Kenia OS's album Pink Aura.

2024–2026: Split with Warner and first album Picnic at the Cemetery

On October 18, 2024, Poarch released "Sweet Delusion," her first solo song since "Bad Boy." She announced on Instagram that "Sweet Delusion" and "Will You Always Love Her," released on March 21, 2025, were intended to be on her first album. On May 1, 2026, she released "Ribcage" and announced her first album, Picnic at the Cemetery. She revealed through the credit of the song that she was not under Warner Records anymore, and with the countdown on Spotify that "Sweet Delusion" and "Will You Always Love Her" were not included on the album.

On her website, Poarch describe the album as a cinematic coming-of-age album about reclaiming memory, rewriting pain, and finding solace in yourself after trauma. She's also introducing a character made by herself, "The Bighead." The purpose of the character is to guide her through heartbreak, girlhood, and self-repair as the album goes by.

Poarch is now signed under her own label, "M TO THE BEE", a reference to her 2020 viral video, and under exclusive license of the Canadian record label Last Gang Records, which is itself under the American independent label MNRK Music Group. She is a cosplayer.

She has expressed her support on social media for the Asian-American community following the rise in reports of anti-Asian hate crimes in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. She also shared her experiences with Vogue, saying that she has been "treated differently" and "randomly attacked and assaulted" as an Asian teenager after moving to the United States from the Philippines.

In September 2020, Korean social media users criticized Poarch for having a tattoo similar to the Rising Sun Flag in her videos. The specific tattoo resembled a symbol of Japanese imperialism, which is considered offensive to East Asians. She apologized and had it covered, then later removed.

She married Tyler Poarch in 2019. She filed for divorce from him in November 2022. The divorce was finalized in October 2023.

In August 2021, she shared that she was a victim of sexual assault.

Discography

Albums Title Release details Picnic at the Cemetery UKDown. Dolls Released: August 12, 2022 Label: Warner Formats: CD, LP, DL, streaming 8 47

Singles +List of singles, with year released, selected chart positions, certifications, and album name shown Title Year Peak chart positions Certifications Album US AUS CAN GER IRE NOR NLD NZ SWE UK "Build a Bitch" 2021 56 28 28 86 23 25 78 24 65 30RIAA: Platinum BPI: Silver MC: Platinum

Awards and nominations