Blood-Soaked Cannibal Popstar: Miss Cherry Delight

When Miss Cherry Delight sings, she shouts. When she performs, it’s full of shock-rock antics that transports listeners back to the traditional roots of Alice Cooper-inspired rock; cramped with nudity, shredding vocals, blood-drenched clothes and grimy, running mascara. There’s something about Miss Cherry that is thrillingly shocking and nerve-rackingly radical with her feminist driven shock value and percussive poetry.

Delve into the sexually charged and blood-splattered horror spectacle of shock rocker and New York-based artist Miss Cherry Delight. She prides herself as being a “theatrical cannibal” and “demented sweetheart”. Her shows are described as interlacing a world where visual aesthetics of Valentine’s Day and Halloween come together as one bloody “holiday orgy” that never ends.

Miss Cherry’s music is reminiscent of 90’s goth grunge with a contemporary mix of dark-pop that is inspired by the likes of Babes In Toyland, Genitorturers and Specimen. On stage, Miss Cherry plays the character of a closeted cannibal anti-hero, who is addicted to eating her lovers.

“I feel the most beautiful and free when I am a grotesque, bloody and terrifying creature that no one asked for,” said Miss Cherry.

The rocker has been singing professionally for over 20 years and is a lifelong performer with her burlesque pageant queen roots. Winning Miss Coney Island in 2013, Miss Cherry has used this moment to serve as inspiration in order to unfold layers of the evolution of what makes her on-stage theatrics truly special. As if the name doesn’t completely give it away, Miss Cherry “lures” her audiences into a world of lust, erotica and sinfulness.

Miss Cherry is no stranger to improvisational erotic stage performances; the singer is known for her burlesque shows and her performance with Lords of Acid in March 2019 at Gramercy Theater.

With over 20 years of experience as a classically trained singer, Miss Cherry’s solo career sparked after her memorable and highly tantalizing show Cherry Hellodies. She covered rock and metal covers with a live band accompanying burlesque performances.

Though women have been screaming themselves hoarse since the start of Riot Grrrl, which was an era of the activist punk subculture that directly addressed third-wave feminist concerns like sexual autonomy and violence against women by women-fronted bands. There’s something about Miss Cherry’s striking — yet gory — burlesque performance style, dressed in torn latex clothing, spiked chokers, blood dripping all over her face while drinking holy water that captures her audiences’ attention. It might be her lyrics; blunt, messy and compelling: “I am the goddess of pleasure and pain / My kiss is the venom that runs through your veins / I’m a wild and wicked voodoo priestess / One look and you’ll forget all about Jesus”, in her song “Scorpio Witch.”

In 2019, Miss Cherry released her debut album Eat The Evidence, where the rocker is pictured wearing latex and mesh, sitting smeared in blood clutching a pink, fluffy teddy bear with its guts bleeding out against a pastel pink background. This album opens with “Scorpio Witch”, where she seductively sings about hexing a man and letting him be her voodoo doll.

Released in Halloween 2018, the first song she ever wrote “Cherry Blood” is featured on the record which is evocative of the early stylings of Hole with its sludgy dissonance and heavy growls. “Beg for me when I cast my spell / I’ll drag your soul with me to hell / Cherry tears rolling out your eyes / Tastes so good make a grown man cry”, Miss Cherry sings. Here, she relates the taste of blood to cherries and tossing off other people’s concerns about her otherness.

Some of the best moments of Eat The Evidence are not exaggerated moans, but when Miss Cherry sings about reclaiming her body as a real-life survivor in “Mine”. “If I could rewrite my past / I would not take the blame / I’d take your hands off my mouth / And make you tell the cops his name (and you expect forgiveness) / But I finally grew / Got away from you / You fucking crossed the line / Now I’m taking back what’s mine.” This is a personal reflection and the more intimate side of the singer as she’s fighting her way out of hell which is accompanied by slower instrumentals that escalate into guttural, earth-shattering and literal “f**k you” screams.

In “Here, Kitty Kitty”, Miss Cherry unleashes a slightly unrestrained chaos towards the end of the song with “Don’t you wanna pet me, babe? / No, not today.” She expresses energetic passion by taking control of her own sexuality and sexual needs.

In her Instagram post from March, she talks about her emotions and personal experiences playing a huge role in connecting to her audiences. “For as long as I can remember, my emotions have always seemed to be a million times more intense than everyone else’s. Perhaps this is why they are my superpower. I use this superpower for connecting with my audience, which is the most important thing to me.”

Hypersexuality, slasher babes, anti-censorship and queer subject matters all come into play in Eat The Evidence. With her feminist focus and antagonistic censorship views, “Uncensored” was brought to life with its heavy-hitting quality and message. “You tell me to cover up / You don’t know what art is / You tell me to shut my mouth / You don’t know what freedom is / You dictate what I can and can’t do / Well, I’ve got news for you / Ban me, block me, shut me down / I’ll just come back to knock you out.” By taking away one’s identity, it’s taking away the right to self expression and the way one governs their bodies. A sense of urgency and an irritated vibe ignite the song further.

Miss Cherry said that the most important thing about her is who she is, where she’s going and what she stands for in her music; reclaiming self-ownership is power.

“For most of my life, my body belonged to everyone but me. This started in small ways from the moment I came into existence, and amplified as I got older. I am a survivor of a shortened childhood, but my trauma does not and never will define me. If, and when, I show my body on stage, it is NEVER for titillation. It is a demonstration of how I am a self-made weapon. My artistic display is audible and physical rebellion from what is expected of a woman in the entertainment industry. It is my intention to give permission to anyone, of any gender, who has been oppressed and trapped in the mindset of what is expected of them, to free themselves from what has slowly and steadily pushed them into society’s cookie cutter,” said Miss Cherry.

Her recent single release, “The Monster,” is a song heavily inspired by the Monster in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. In an interview with Horror Society, Miss Cherry said, “The feeling behind this piece centers around the rage from always having your authenticity misinterpreted and rejected. If you’ve been told your whole life you’re “intense” and you feel like you don’t actually belong anywhere, well, Hello. This is your song. Blast it and scream with me. Let your Monster out.”

Miss Cherry Delight is the next upcoming cannibal popstar, whose performances are a wild, chaotic and sparkly spectacle. She is here to remind horror and shock-rock fans that hypersexuality is a form of normalized self-expression that doesn’t require censorship from anyone — let alone a man — more importantly, to let loose and scream your lungs out.