Pop star girli on new album and sapphic love songs: ‘It’s an amazing time to be a queer woman in pop music’
Exclusive: "It’s great to feel like you’re not outnumbered and screaming into the void for once," the '2 Year Itch' singer tells Attitude
girli is that once in a lifetime, generational pop pioneer that after nearly a decade of releasing music, amassing millions of streams and one of the most dedicated fan communities in the biz, is only just getting started.
She’s been shouting about sapphic love stories in her songs since her musical inception. Now with artists such as Billie Eilish, Charli XCX and Chappell Roan elevating queer alt-pop to the masses, we sit down to discuss dating advice, non-prescription cream to cure those commitment rashes, and what it feels like to be a queer pop girly in today’s turbulent music industry.
We’re obsessed with your ‘2 Year Itch’ cream. Where can we buy it and how much does it cost?
The ‘2 Year Itch’ relief cream is available by streaming my song; coincidentally that’s also how you pay for it! Stream the fuck out of that song and watch the music video until you ooze cream.
Your new song is about a pattern in relationships where things turn sour after the two-year mark. Why do you think that is?
I think for me personally it was because I was chasing people who showed affection in unhealthy ways and that’s why I wasn’t quite ready to accept healthy love yet. I almost needed to get some fuck-ups out of my system, perhaps. But I think the main reason was that I hadn’t worked on myself enough. When I had, I met the right person. That person made me feel like home.
‘I’m always running when shit gets real, I guess that’s my history’ is a lyric in the song. How have you dealt with relationship commitment in the past and what do you think has changed for you that has combatted this fear?
My history with relationships is that I’d go from one extreme to the other. I would go all in 100-million percent and want the complete perfect fairytale to start off with (there’s a lyric in the song “I play up to the fairytale”) because I preferred to live in the story rather than enjoy the reality. The reality that the beginning of a relationship is one set of emotions and feelings and as you go on each different stage of a relationship brings different sets of feelings and emotions and scenarios; not necessarily worse; just different. I think society’s obsession with the honeymoon phase and the fear of it ending really put into my head that after two years a relationship would go dead and get boring, and that terrified me so much that once the tiniest cracks started to show, I would freak out and call it quits.
What’s the best piece of dating advice you’ve ever received?
Go where the joy is. Anyone who doesn’t make you feel joyful, AVOID.
If you could give your teenage self any sort of relationship advice, what would you tell lil’ girli?
Stop going for people who make you feel like shit! You’re gorgeous and deserve better.
Sapphic love songs are finally hitting the mainstream, something you’ve always openly discussed in your songwriting. How do you feel about the surge of sexually explicit female pop taking over the charts?
I’m obsessed with it. About fucking time, to be honest! It’s an amazing time to be a woman in pop music; it’s an amazing time to be a queer woman in pop music. It’s great to feel like you’re not outnumbered and screaming into the void for once.
You’ve been singing songs about being in love with women since 2016 and have always been a pioneer and a generational pop icon, particularly in the LGBTQIA+ communities. How important do you still feel that representation and visibility is for young queer folks?
It’s so important and it will be important until every single LGBTQ+ person in the world lives free and without shame, surrounded by love and support. Unfortunately, there are still so many people, especially young people, who are LGBTQ+ and live in fear and shame and are not able to be themselves. If it weren’t for representation, them seeing their stories told by other people in movies/songs/books/TV shows, then they would probably believe some of the bullshit that they’re told about them being disgusting and unworthy. Community is so important to remind ourselves that we are not alone and that we are accepted.
Your creative direction and visuals are always so beautiful and really play into the narrative of your music. Will there be a video for ‘2 Year Itch’ and if so, what can you tell us about it?
There is a music video! It centres around the concept of the ‘2 Year Itch’ relief cream, a magic cream that can soothe your commitment issues. The video is set in the 1950s, which was a time of capitalist boom where the trend of buying products to solve our happiness was first introduced on a mass scale. It was also a time where misogyny and homophobia were rife and I wanted to do a video that juxtaposed that time period, with feminism and queerness written all over it. The video follows a series of couples who have lost their spark and turn to a therapist-cum-businesswoman (played by moi) for her help. She prescribes them all her ‘2 Year Itch’ relief cream, which of course actually doesn’t work. It’s about how we hope there’s a quick fix to relationships and love, but both take time and lots of therapy – and a lot of the time it’s just not meant to be.
2024 has been an incredible year for you where you’ve played shows all over the world. Is there anywhere you still really want to visit and perform?
I’ve never played shows in South America or Asia, and I would absolutely adore to play those parts of the world. I know I have fans from those places because I see them in my comments practically begging me to come, so they’re at the top of my list!
Aside from the North American tour, will there be any UK shows before the end of the year?
I’m making the UK wait a little bit. I’m whetting their appetites and then saying it’s not your time yet!
You’ve announced a deluxe edition of your incredible album Matriarchy. What’s new on Matriarchy: The Queen Edition for fans?
The Queen Edition features two new songs that were contenders for the album but didn’t make it, as well as a possible third song, which I can’t wait for fans to hear.
If girli were to release Matriarchy: The Remix Album, who would be the guest collaborator on ‘2 Year Itch’?
Tove Lo would be cool; her voice has such a melancholy twang to it, even when she’s singing about badass shit. That’s such a skill!
You’re very open about taking brief hiatuses from social media. As a creative, what are the pressures you feel when managing your social platforms, and how do you think artists in 2024 would manage if they didn’t exist?
Social media is difficult to navigate for me as a creative. On the one hand, my creativity feels stifled by the demand for quick, consumable, clickbait content versus the music and the messages with more complexity than that which I’m trying to share. But at the same time, it’s opened this amazing door for independent artists like me to reach new fans without the massive budget of the major labels. It’s tricky to get the balance, because for me as an artist, I really struggle with the content creation side of things; my mental health does not benefit. But hustle culture continues to be all pervasive, making artists feel like they don’t deserve success unless they are churning out videos every day.
Matriarchy: The Queen Edition is out on 8 November. The new single ‘2 Year Itch’ is out now.