Isabel LaRosa Recalls Sneaking Backstage at GovBall and Getting Kicked Out (Exclusive)

Performing at the 2025 Governors Ball Music Festival was an oddly full-circle moment for Isabel LaRosa.

The “I’m Yours” singer, 20, performed on the GovBall main stage in New York City on Friday, June 6, and the milestone moment came after she was kicked out of the festival’s backstage area in 2021.

“I’ve been wanting to play GovBall for years,” LaRosa tells PEOPLE after her set, where she performed alongside brother and collaborator Thomas LaRosa — who was also previously forced to leave the backstage area as well.

“I was seeing Billie [Eilish], and Thomas and I were like, ‘We think we can sneak backstage. There doesn’t look like there’s much security,'” recalled Isabel.

At the time, they successfully got backstage. “We hang out for a while, we meet [singer] Claire Rosenkranz. It was so weird,” she says. “Security was like, ‘What are you doing?’ And then they just removed us.”

“So, that was really fun, but now I guess we’re here,” says Isabel, whose debut album Raven came out in April. “I had dropped my first song like a day before sneaking in, and now I dropped an album. Life is so weird.”

Through it all, she’s had Thomas (who writes and produces with her and plays guitar on stage) by her side. “It’s the best. We don’t really fight. Everyone always asks, like, ‘Do you fight?’ Not really. I mean, he’s kind of a weirdo. But I love him.”

Isabel describes her brother as a “built-in support system” throughout her career — and naturally, they’ve received comparisons to Eilish and Finneas, but they’re yet to meet the fellow sibling duo.

“I’ve seen her [perform] a couple times now. I love her so much,” she says of the “Happier Than Ever” singer. “I’d be a little nervous [to meet her].”

However, she’d get over the nerves if the opportunity came about. “We need to meet them. Let’s make it happen,” exclaims Isabel. “Hit a girl up!”