Gelli Haha: Enter the Gelliverse
We spoke to the rising, primary-coloured star that is Gelli Haha at Primavera Sound 2026. Angel Abaya, known professionally as Gelli Haha, has been featured in Pitchfork, NME and Billboard following her latest album. We spoke to her about her relationship to silliness, vaudeville, and Liza Minnelli.
Interview Holly Wyche Photography Alx Connor
Gelli Haha performing at Primavera Sound 2026 in Barcelona ©AlxConnor
I think what's interesting about your music is that you have this incredibly playful but also earnest sound. I just wondered why that's so important to you?
I definitely wanted to make music that wasn't very serious, and was very silly, but I didn't want it to just be "ah, nothing matters". That's not what I'm trying to say by not being serious.
It's more just that you can enjoy life even if things are not always going your way. That's how the joy makes sense to me. If you're making your way through other things and finding it still. It's fun and interesting for me to look into harder emotions in a light way. I think it's an interesting perspective that I don't think is necessarily hard for me, as apparent on the record. But it is something I think about a lot. I've definitely written lyrics that we've edited later, because I was sounding too serious.
Gelli Haha performing at Primavera Sound 2026 in Barcelona ©AlxConnor
Gelli Haha performing at Primavera Sound 2026 in Barcelona ©AlxConnor
“I definitely wanted to make music that wasn't very serious, and was very silly, but I didn't want it to just be "ah, nothing matters".”
You have this focus on showmanship in your performances, could tell me a bit about that?
I grew up watching musical theatre performances. So one, my inspirations are usually singers but two, they’re usually showmen. Maybe this is my musical theatre past, but I like experiencing music through the lens of a story. What does it feel like, what does it look like, what does it smell like? I just want to experience it in full, and that's why I think we've put so much effort into the show. I'm a big fan of Judy Garland and also Liza Minali, the showmanship blood runs strong in that line.
What it also really reminded me of was clowning. I wanted to hear if you had any specific relationship to that as well?
I am very new to the whole clown scene. I had a lot of intentional aesthetics and vibes for Gelli, but child clown was not really my main inspo, it just became that. I think my initial inspo is popstars and musical theatre, but then I was also really into 1920s vaudeville slapstick. That's the closest inspo I had to clowning where there is this circusy element. I love that their humour was just so cheeky and light. I was also really big on performance art parties, like Studio 54 and there was this club called Area in New York, in the late 70s, early 80s. They would just make these crazy, outlandish, weird art parties, and dress up silly.
“I like experiencing music through the lens of a story. What does it feel like, what does it look like, what does it smell like?”
Gelli Haha performing at Primavera Sound 2026 in Barcelona ©AlxConnor
Gelli Haha performing at Primavera Sound 2026 in Barcelona ©AlxConnor
Yeah your Spotify bio says somewhere between Studio 54 and Area 51, but I was wondering about how your choreo plays into that too?
My initial thought with the dancers was that I wanted it to feel really integral to what was happening. There's a story arc, there is intention behind it, we are kind of just improvising! Sometimes they fight, sometimes we're building something together, we become a parachute monster.
We continued to build this story where the dancers were almost different parts of self? Different parts of yourself that you like left behind at a certain point or abandoned here or there. That's what I see in the parachute monster. We've just glued ourselves all back together, and then we can release that and experience a bunch of stuff together and go on a different adventure. I think that the reason that story came out was because I do think growing up, I did take myself too seriously.
With Gelli, it's funny because we obviously take non-seriousness very seriously and we obviously work hard to make this show. It's not like we're just totally whimsical about everything. But previous projects of mine just felt like I was sitting on a soapbox. So, with this project, I just wanted to bring back my childlike impulses to just be expressive. I used to play instruments in bands and I think with this project, I let go of the need to prove that I'm a musician. I genuinely don't care if people know that I wrote everything, and we recorded the record, and that I direct a lot of this stuff. I just want them to enjoy it! Or not, I don’t know.
“I've definitely written lyrics that we've edited later, because I was sounding too serious.”
Gelli Haha during our interview at Primavera Sound 2026 in Barcelona ©AlxConnor
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