(photo credit: Plastic Fruit)
Over the past two years, pop singer/songwriter Ally Salort has emerged as a talented new artist to watch. She has built a large following on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, and she writes songs that are unique, creative and hooky. She has signed a label deal with Disruptor Records/RCA Records, which is part of Sony Music Entertainment.
This week, Salort is releasing her second EP, titled Isn’t it sweeter? This is an impressive, 6-song collection that contains her recently released songs “Finish Line,” “Househeeping,” “I’ve Never Met Her” and “Proof.” It also includes her brand new songs “A Little More Fun” and “I Wish We Had Forever.” This EP is the follow-up to her debut EP Change of Plans, which was released a year ago.
Salort, who is 22, grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey (which is near New York City). She learned to play guitar and piano at a young age, and soon after she played in a band and began writing songs.
When she was 14, she became a finalist in a label talent search in Los Angeles, and industry execs encouraged her to build an online audience by posting covers and writing her own songs. When she was 15, she started posting her cover versions of songs on YouTube and TikTok, and some of these covers went viral.
When she was 19 she signed a label deal, and she released her first original song, “Stranger Things,” in May 2022. By 2024, she was getting million of streams on Spotify with her songs “Deeper Meaning” and “Messy.”
Then in 2025, Salort released her EP, Change of Plans, which featured the popular songs “Pretty Face,” “Horror Movie,” “Before and After” and “Tattoo (selective memory).”
It was at the end of 2025 that Salort was invited by pop star Charlie Puth to be the opening act on his major tour of arenas and theaters. She recently completed his tour with Puth, which went from April to June 2022.
We are pleased to do this new Q&A with Ally Salort. She tells how she got started in the music business and she talks about her first EP. She also discusses her new EP and her songwriting.
DK: I read that you’re from Maplewood, New Jersey. How did you get started with singing and writing songs?
Here’s the lyric video of Ally Salort’s song, “Finish Line.”
Ally Salort: I would go to my brother’s recitals—he did guitar and voice at this place nearby. He’s four years older than me, and he started taking guitar and vocal lessons. And he was in this band, and when I was seven I asked my mom if I could do that as well. Then I started taking lessons and I was put in a band, and I fell in love with music and performing.
DK: Early on, you sang covers of hit songs, and you posted them on TikTok and YouTube. Can you talk about your early years, becoming an artist?
Salort: I always wrote songs of my own. At first, I didn’t feel confident enough to post them right away. So I did start with covers when I was 15. I started posting covers on YouTube and I had a lot of fun doing this. I would post every week and I started to build a following.
DK: Last year, you released your first EP, Change the Plans. Can you talk about making that EP?
Salort: At first, I didn’t realize I was making an EP while I was writing it. It had been my first year of doing the whole writing session world, where you meet different people and write and see who you click with. From that, I realized there was a storyline between some of the songs, and I knew I wanted to put out a project. So that’s how that body of work came about.
DK: Two of the most popular songs on your first EP were “Tattoo (selective memory)” and “Horror Movie.” How did you write those songs?
Salort: With “Horror Movie,” I wrote it in the summer of 2024 with this amazing writer Victoria Zaro (aka RYANN) and DCF (David Charles Fischer). We were playing around with the concept of comparing love and a horror movie together, and there are weirdly a lot of similarities. Even though it’s a sad song, it was fun to write it. Then with “Tattoo (selective memory),” I wrote that with this amazing writer GRACIE. That was our first time meeting, and I was talking about how easy it is to forget what somebody did to you in the past. And how easy it is to want to go back to someone and forgive them, because you forget all the bad stuff. You only remember the good stuff, and that’s how that song was born.
Here’s the lyric video of Ally Salort’s song, “I’ve Neve
Met Her.”
DK: It’s been a year since you released your first EP. Can you talk about the past year for you, leading up to making your new EP?
Salort: After I put out my first EP, a lot more firsts happened. I played my first festival, I did my first headline shows, and then two weeks ago I got off a very big tour, opening for Charlie Puth.
DK: I like your new song, “Finish Line,” which has a catchy chorus and a good lyric idea. What inspired you to write this song?
Salort: That concept is something I’ve always thought about. I think anytime I achieve something, sometimes it’s human nature to immediately think about what’s next, and never truly feel satisfied where you are. I remember the day I wrote that song—I had written in my notes…How will I be able to appreciate how far I’ve come if I’m always focused on how far I have to go? That’s what inspired the song.
DK: Another song I like is ”Housekeeping,” which has a unique title about breaking up by cleaning house. How did you come up with the idea for this song?
Salort: I think that word was just floating around, and at the session that I had that day, we were talking about how it’s a cool metaphor…with housekeeping meaning emotionally decluttering.
DK: You’ve created song titles like “Horror Movie,” “Housekeeping” and “Finish Line.” How do you like to come up with your ideas and titles?
Salort: I love starting with a title and I love a metaphor. If you look in my notes there’s probably a bunch of those, and some start with full-on lines or full-on lyrics for the chorus. Or some are just the title and that’s how it starts.
DK: Another song on your EP, “I’ve Never Met Her,” has an interesting lyric idea. When I first saw that title, I thought you were singing about another girl. But then I realized that you’re actually writing the song about yourself. Can you talk about writing this song?
Salort: I remember the song started with the melody first. We were doing the melody for the chorus, and the phrase “light as a feather” came out. From there, I randomly said “I’ve never met her” at the end. Originally, it was supposed to be a song about when you do something stupid because maybe you got too drunk or whatever (laughs). Then the next day you’re like, “Oh I’ve never meant it, that wasn’t me.” Then it turned into a bigger, more existential thing of like any past version of yourself, and kind of getting rid of that.
Here’s the lyric video of Ally Salort’s song, “Housekeeping.”
DK: On your new EP, besides the songs that we’ve discussed, what are your other favorite songs?
Salort: I love a song called “If We Had Forever.” It’s the last song on the EP and it feels very much like a closure song. It’s coming to terms with the fact that not everything lasts forever and that’s okay. And I love the production on it. I think it’s going to be really pretty to sing live.
DK: I want to ask you about your live shows and touring. You recently completed a tour opening for Charlie Puth. How did you connect with Charlie and go on tour with him?
Salort: I had met him briefly three years ago. I don’t know if he remembers this, but he needed a female vocal on his song and one of the producers I was working with called me on a random night and I went to his house and I did these vocals. And from there he followed me and we were mutuals for a couple years. Then last December, I got a call asking if I wanted to go on tour with him.
DK: As a young artist, what was it like to play in front of tens of thousands people each night?
Salort: It was insane. We played arenas and some theaters. Honestly, I think I was more nervous in the theaters because I could actually see the people in front. And I was less nervous in the arenas, because I felt it was a little more like I was in my bedroom. The arenas were so massive—I don’t think my brain could comprehend it in the moment.
