PinkPantheress’ Romeo first caught attention on April 8, 2024, when she teased it on TikTok as a “2007 high school movie soundtrack.”
@pinkpantheress ur my romeo #fyp #music #newmusic #please ♬ original sound –
Back then, it was only a chorus, a loop built on the melody of Basement Jaxx’s 2004 Good Luck, from a group she calls a key inspiration for her Fancy That mixtape.
Fans fell for it instantly, even before the rest of the song existed.
By the time Romeo music video officially dropped on August 13, 2025, the track had become one of the most anticipated releases of her career.
Directed by Iris Luz, the music video plays out inside a South London chess tournament, where PinkPantheress faces off against singer Destin Conrad.
Between strategic moves, the two reappear as a King and Queen on a life-size board, circling each other in a choreographed face-off.
PinkPantheress has described Fancy That as a project about “feeling the music in your body,” with dance as part of the storytelling and visuals rooted in a kitsch, movement-driven style.
In Romeo, that aesthetic meets her reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
The classic story is modernised through street-level London settings, crowns, and flashes of red, with her love interest framed as “my Romeo” while she keeps them just out of reach.
The track captures both infatuation and distance:
You can fall in love with boys and girls and in between / So I promise that you shouldn’t waste your time on all of me
Fans have called it “the softest way to reject someone” and “sweet but slightly cruel, like chess it’s about making the next move count.”
On social media, listeners praised it as part of “one of the top pop campaigns and eras of the year,” highlighting her evolution from anonymity to playful, fully realised visuals.
Romeo also reflects PinkPantheress’ tendency to fixate on a single figure.
She has admitted to intense celebrity crushes, once meeting all of NCT Dream and avoiding eye contact because her “heart was racing.”
That nervous energy weaves into the verses, making the flirtation feel as fragile as it is bold.
The single is part of a huge 2025 for PinkPantheress. Fancy That, released in May, has already spawned the TikTok-fuelled Illegal, which reached the Top Five on the dance charts.
She has performed at Glastonbury and Way Out West, appeared on The Tonight Show, and will play two sold-out Brixton nights before her North American tour begins October 24.
What keeps Romeo replayable is not just the hook that fans knew a year early.
It is the way every detail connects: the stolen glances, the tactical game, the grandeur of the life-size chessboard, and the pauses where nothing happens but everything shifts.
It leaves the listener asking whether victory means checkmate or walking away before the final move.
