Denarie Bautista Taylor[2][3][4][5][6] (born February 8, 1997[7]), known professionally as Bella Poarch (/pɔːrtʃ/PORCH),[8] is an American social media personality and singer. On August 17, 2020, she created the most liked video on
TikTok, in which she lip syncs to the song "
M to the B" by British rapper Millie B. She is the most followed TikTok contributor from the Philippines.[9][10][11] In May 2021, she released her debut single "
Build a Bitch".[12]
Poarch was born on February 8, 1997,[15] in the Philippines.[14] She was raised by her grandmother in
slums until the age of three and was then adopted.[16] Her adoptive father is an American who had served in the
US military and her adoptive mother is Filipina. Both parents met in
Saudi Arabia where her adoptive father was stationed, before settling in the Philippines. In an interview, Poarch recounted that she and her adopted brother were heavily physically and emotionally abused throughout her entire childhood, up until her enlistment in the military. She lived on a farm with her adoptive parents and three (adopted) siblings, including two older sisters and a brother. She had many responsibilities on the farm from as young as seven years old. Poarch has stated that her adoptive sisters did not receive the same treatment as her and her brother. Her father was verbally and physically abusive, while her mother did not get involved, but remained complicit. At age thirteen, Poarch and her family (with exception of her sisters who still reside in the Philippines) moved to San Francisco to reside with her aunt for several months, before moving to Texas[14] due to her father's need for bypass surgery. [17]
Musical career
In January 2020, Poarch created her
TikTok account. She started actively posting on TikTok based on gaming and cosplay content in April 2020. She gained notability in August 2020, when her lip sync videos went viral, most notably her video where she is lip-syncing to "Sophie Aspin Send" by Millie B. The zoomed-in video of her lip-syncing and rhythmically bouncing went viral and became TikTok's most liked video of all time. Following her TikTok success, she launched a
YouTube channel and
Twitter page.
Poarch is also associated with her alpaca stuffed toy.[18][19] In 2020, she released a limited clothing line RIPNDIP x Paca Collaboration.[20]
In December 2020, Poarch's rising popularity peaked when she reportedly grabbed the interest of two large professional Esports organizations –
100 Thieves and
FaZe Clan, which apparently showed interest in her, a live streamer and gamer at the time, as a content creator under their respective banners.[21] In May 2021, Poarch signed a record deal with
Warner Records.
On May 14, 2021, Poarch released her debut single "
Build a Bitch."[22] She stated that the song was inspired by her experiences with being bullied as a child,[23] disclosing "Growing up, I used to get bullied and stuff... I wanted my first song to have a good meaning to it and to help a lot of people just to be like, more confident about themselves." The associated music video was described by Billboard as "an audacious, darkly comic slice of new-school pop," created with Daniel Virgil Maisonneuve, the producer-songwriter better known as
Sub Urban."[12] The video features other notable internet personalities including
Valkyrae,
Mia Khalifa,
Bretman Rock and
ZHC.[24]
On an episode of the 100 Thieves podcast "The CouRage and Nadeshot Show,”[25] Poarch stated that she wanted to become a singer since she was a child.[26]
Poarch released her first
EP, Dolls, on August 12, 2022. It includes her previous singles, "Build a Bitch," "
Inferno," and "Dolls," as well as new tracks "Villain," "No Man's Land," and "Living Hell." A music video for "Living Hell" debuted alongside the EP. In addition to co-starring in the music video for "Dolls,"
Grimes features on "No Man's Land."[27]Rolling Stone praised the dark pop tone of the EP.[28] In addition, "Villain" would be used for WWE's
Extreme Rules premium live event in 2022. She released a song and music video with
Lauv on September 15, 2023, titled “Crush.”[29]
Military career
Poarch is a U.S. Navy veteran.[30] She enlisted in the Navy in 2017 as an
aviation ordnanceman.[31][32] She served for three years, having been stationed in Japan and Hawaii.[citation needed]
She has expressed her support on social media for the Asian-American community due to the rise in reports of anti-asian hate crimes.[34] She also shared her experiences with Vogue, saying that she has been "treated differently" and "randomly attacked and assaulted" as an Asian teen after moving to the U.S. from the Philippines.[35]
In September 2020,
Korean social media users criticized Poarch for having a tattoo similar to the
Rising Sun Flag in her videos. The specific tattoo resembled a symbol of
Japanese imperialism which is considered offensive to East Asians. She apologized and had it covered then later removed.[36][37] Poarch married fellow seaman Tyler Poarch in 2019. She filed for divorce from him in November 2022.[38]
In August 2021, she shared that she was a victim of sexual assault.[39][40]
^Poarch, Bella.
"Bella Poarch – H3 Podcast # 247". H3 Podcast. Retrieved September 21, 2021. When I was three, before I was adopted, I was living with my grandma and it was in the slums. We were very poor.