The Linda Lindas made their Jimmy Kimmel Live! debut!
The Asian and Latinx band was given a major break this past week when they rocked the main stage to perform their viral song “Racist, Sexist Boy” and The Baby-Sitters Club-inspired “Claudia Kishi” on a recent broadcast of the popular late-night talk show.
The four teenage girls — Mila, Eloise, Lucia, and Bela — have come a long way since their jam session at Los Angeles Public Library made them an instant internet sensation, having racked up more than 4 million views since the clip hit Twitter last month.
The Linda Lindas kicked off their wicked set with the fiery, fan-favorite call-out track, which, as the girls revealed in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, was inspired by a racially charged incident that Mila, the group’s youngest member, experienced at school.
“A boy from school told me that his dad told him to stay away from Chinese people, and I told him that I was Chinese and he backed away from me,” she explained. “There’s a lot of sexism around boys our age, and really every age. And so we were really angry and we decided to write a song about it.”
Ironically enough, the teenagers — whose lyrics swell with the angst of adolescence and school amid the era of quarantine — learned about their overnight stardom during class.
Like Bela, the oldest member of the group at 16, recalled: “I was in history class and my phone kept buzzing, and my teacher kept looking at me like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I opened my Instagram and my whole feed was just us.”
Having opened for acts like Best Coast and Bikini Kill, and received a cosign from Tom Morello, the Linda Lindas are well on their way to becoming rock’s new IT girls. As previously reported, the girls have already inked a recording deal with Epitaph Records.
Watch the Linda Lindas on Jimmy Kimmel Live! above.
Photo: Getty Images