Photo by Blair Brown / Design by JP Consuegra
Ahead of her debut album 'Not Normal,' Cara goes deep into the music that's shaped her life, from Prince and Fiona Apple to Kendrick Lamar and hardcore dubstep.
September 24, 2026
BY Will Schube
Cara Delevingne loves music. Or as the fashion icon, actress, and musician might explain it: she's fucking obsessed with music.
As a young girl, she was raised on a steady diet of early 2000s pop and R&B, thanks to cool older sisters. In high school, she embraced the alternative emo wave popularized by Avril Lavigne and Panic! At the Disco. Then, she got into dubstep and hardcore and jungle and rap, spending long nights raving at Fabric in her home city of London.
All the while, she was making a career out of modeling and acting, walking in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show as a 20-year-old and acting in the Anna Karenina film adaptation that same year. The desire to make music, though, never died. Over the course of her adult life, she’s written songs with and for some of the biggest stars in the industry. She’s released a track with Pharrell and dropped the occasional solo song. She collaborated with St. Vincent on the singer’s Masseduction album and Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters. All that, though, is a little bit different than releasing your own album, being able to hold up a physical thing in the actual world. That LP, Not Normal, is out on September 25 via Warner Records.
“The vinyl arrived, and I thought about doing an unboxing video at some point, but I was like, ‘I’m fucking taking this fucking thing out. I don’t give a shit if anyone's watching or not,’” Delevingne tells us over Zoom. Amid all the career accomplishments, this one feels as big—if not bigger—than anything she’s done to date. “It’s really emotional. Some people dream of being a fucking princess. I didn’t. This was my dream, but I really didn't know if it would ever happen.” It has happened, and Delevingne couldn’t be more excited to showcase yet another side of her artistic persona.
Below, check out all the music that helped inspire the creation of both Not Normal and Cara Delevingne’s life as an artist.
You co-directed the music video for “Crazy Baby.” What’s your favorite music video ever?
That is so hard. Oh my God. I know this is really crazy, but the first music video I can remember that I was completely obsessed with was the Spice Girls “Wannabe” video. It was a one-er. Even when I was a kid, I really appreciated that it felt like we were on the journey with them, almost that the audience was the sixth Spice Girl. You were with them in that moment. I always thought that music videos were an incredible opportunity to show cinematic taste, because you could do anything. You could go along with what the song means. You could go with something completely abstract. That’s why I’m so grateful that I grew up in the MTV era. I remember being really young and staying up past 10:00 PM so I could watch the Robbie Williams music video where he takes off his skin. Anything Missy Elliott as well. I was completely transfixed by her style and everything. How she did her music videos was the fucking coolest. It allows the music to hit in a different way, and also shows you more of who the artist is and what their vision is.
What's the first album that you ever bought on CD or vinyl?
Eminem and Destiny's Child. Obviously not together. The Destiny's Child one was on Minidisc. To be honest, I didn’t buy them. I inherited it from my sisters. There was a song on there called “Apple Pie À La Mode.” I still know it. I could sing the whole thing to you right now. I was so obsessed with that one song. Obviously the rest of the album’s amazing, but I played that song a million, bajillion times. I think the Eminem album was The Eminem Show. I would’ve been 10. I was really young. I’d go to the Virgin Megastore.
Did you discover music from your sisters?
100%. I don’t remember my parents really listening to music as much, so my taste in music is very '90s focused. My partner has a lot more of the dad rock thing that I learned about, but mine is super pop, ’90s hip-hop, and R&B focused because of my sisters. I was so lucky. They were teaching me dance routines and teaching me songs. There are videos of us dancing when I was four.
Who was an artist that shaped your teenage years?
I was in an emo phase, which wasn’t super emo. It was more like Panic! At the Disco emo. Avril Lavigne emo. It was emo and '90s hip-hop—Slick Rick, Big L, Notorious B.I.G., Lil Kim. It was also London indie: Jamie T, Kate Nash, Laura Marling, Kid Harpoon. Then it was drum and bass, dubstep, Skream, Benga, and Coki, really hardcore dubstep. I think that’s when I started taking drugs.
A good time to be growing up in London, I’d say.
It was a really good time. I started going to Fabric and dancing at a pretty young age, but I kind of wish I’d been raving in the ’90s.
How about an artist or a song that helped you through a breakup?
Oh gosh, such a good question. It’s got to be a song that I know super well because I would have to be able to sing it at the top of my voice. It would be Eminem and Rihanna’s “Love the Way You Lie” because I do both parts and I would scream that at the top of my lungs. Or “Need You Now” or something. What else? Something by Adele. Or a Sam Smith song. Oh, that one about sleeping. [laughs]
So you like to get even sadder during a break up.
My God. Yeah. What? Don’t people do that? Pour salt in the wound, for sure. That's why I am the way I am. I like to spiral. I think it helps. It helps me make art.
Who's the latest artist you discovered that you can't stop listening to?
My girlfriend just made me listen to this. Delaney & Bonnie. When we’re together, I’m quite domineering when it comes to who puts the music on. I like to drive more than her, so I'll always put on hip-hop. I always think that if she wanted to listen to music, she would put it on. We had a conversation about it the other day, because she started saying all these artists and I was like, ‘Who the fuck are any of those people? Do I just take over and not allow you to listen to the music?’ So she started sending me music to listen to, and I just love knowing her more, I guess.
I love to listen to music that's nostalgic, especially since I’ve been in the album process. I can't really listen to new music. I wouldn’t be able to absorb it in the right way. I just want to listen to stuff that takes me back to a certain time.
There are also a couple of new pop girlies that I really am enjoying. ADÉLA’s really cool. Slayyyter, too.
If you can't sleep at 2:00 AM, what song do you put on?
I wouldn’t put on a song. I’ll listen to a really heavy autobiography, like Slash’s. It’s usually a really heavy musician’s biography about them doing heroin. Those are my favorite for some reason. Slash, Anthony Bourdain, Jim Morrison. Obviously, he didn't have an autobiography, but there are so many books about him. They're really intense. They help me sleep so much. There’s a certain amount of chaos that gets me out of my head and then just makes me pass out.
An alien lands on earth and you get to pick one song that introduces them to the concept of music. What do you choose?
Oh. My. God. These are so hard. Jesus. One song? It better be really fucking long, I guess, because that’s just seemingly the best idea. One artist? I would say Prince, because he has such an incredible range of music. They’d get a bigger sense of music in total.
What song do you want played at your funeral?
Something really funny. Oh God, something so, so funny. I don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone that’s at my funeral, but at that point, holograms are going to be super cool. I remember being at Coachella when Tupac was a hologram, and I was definitely on a lot of drugs, and I really thought he was still alive. I was crying, being like, ‘I knew he was alive.’ I will get a really incredible hologram and be like, ‘Just kidding, I'm still alive,’ and then be like, ‘No, just kidding, I'm dead.’
And perform your own music?
Oh yeah, that's a great idea. Actually, I'd probably do Sheryl Crow’s “If It Makes You Happy.”
If there’s a song that you have to recite word for word, what are you choosing?
I have this thing that when people talk, I can mimic back what they're saying to them at the exact same time. I think it was Kelly Clarkson who asked me to do it on her TV show and it didn't go well on TV because you could hear me at the same level she was. If you are at a party and someone else is drunk or high and you do it to them, they're like, ‘How the fuck do you know what I'm saying at the same time?’ Anyway, I think with songs I can just mimic.
Obviously, I’m getting the words wrong, but I just know the intonations and how the words sound. The most complicated song I could do would probably be “Gimme the Loot” by The Notorious B.I.G., or anything by Rihanna.
Anytime someone asks what to put on, especially if I’m doing a shoot or something, I’ll say Rihanna. No matter what, especially to get a vibe or to just get everyone in a mood, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like Rihanna’s music. You can’t go wrong.
A movie's being made about your life, who do you want doing the soundtrack? Rihanna?
My God, I didn't even know I could double dip. If that would be her new album, I would be so gassed.
Oh, it’d be Fiona Apple 100%. If it was a mega band of Fiona Apple, Alanis Morissette, Erykah Badu, and Lauryn Hill, that would be so cool.
That’s an insane group.
Insane group, no? But it’s the best girl band of all-time. Add Queen Latifah in there.
Which artist have you seen most in concert?
Rihanna. Rihanna, 100%. Taylor Swift is probably a close second.
This is just a Rihanna interview now.
Yeah, that's fine. I don't mind.
I was lucky to see Prince three times before he passed away. I saw him at the O2 Arena, way in the back. Then I saw him at Ronnie Scott’s, which was so small and intimate and just so mind-blowingly incredible because it just felt so free and a jam session.
Who’s one artist you’d use the celebrity card for, where you try to pull as many strings as it takes to get into a show?
I love music. It’s hard to know what I wouldn’t use that for [laughs]. That's terrible, but I think I do that a lot, don’t I? I think I probably do it in a terrible way. That’s probably quite bad, isn't it? I’ve seen Ariana Grande twice for that recent show because I love her. I think she’s amazing, and it's a great show. Hearing her sing those runs and those licks, that music is just incredible. I'm not going to lie. I was like, ‘How am I going to get in this fucking show again?’ If I couldn't get tickets for a show, I would always use it. I think I'm proud of my desperation like that.
Who are your top three rappers of all time?
People get so crazy about this question, which I understand. Everyone has a different opinion, right? It's really interesting. I was a drummer, and Biggie was always…His intonation and his cadence were so incredible. I’d never heard someone rap with that flow before. He’s definitely there, because you don't love any rapper as much as you do your first real obsession with rap. Oh, gosh. I don't know.
I'm going to go with Biggie. Then I'm going to go with Eminem, and then I'm going to go with Kendrick Lamar.