UPSAHL is no stranger to making fiery anthems. Her discography is full of them from the TikTok viral ‘Drugs’, right through to the chaotic ‘Lunatic’, and the brutally honest ‘People I Don’t Like’. Following the release of her debut album ‘Lady Jesus’ last year, the Arizona raised singer-songwriter has returned with one of her most controversial and anthemic releases yet.
‘Monica Lewinsky’ is an ode to confident and unapologetic women who have made a massive impact on pop culture from the likes of Monica Lewinsky, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus. It’s a song that celebrates the fierceness they showed with a witty playfulness they would undoubtedly all be proud of if they heard the song. But there is a second layer to the song that acknowledges how much bullshit they had to put up with from media, the general public, and their own peers as they dodged global headlines, continual jokes, and tasteless skits on lat night shows. They paved the way for so many people to be authentically themselves in their own lives, and in that we owe them a lot – including a bad ass anthem.
“On the year that I was born girls were fucking presidents in the residence. Then when I was four shaving all their heads and toying with the press” she sings during the first verse, before proclaiming “I wanna make, wanna make history. Like Britney. Like Lindsey. Stunna like Monica Lewinsky”. She even manages to drop in the iconic line “Hannah raised me, Miley made me”, and she’s right.
The production is bold, anthemic, and gritty, which is in classic UPSAHL fashion. She has this unique and bold way to bring together grunge and pop so effortlessly, and then you know when she hits the live stage a bad ass rock interpretation will be born. It’s a song that on surface level is playful and fun, but when you dig away at it, it’s a song we need with the current stay of the world. It’s a bit of a reminder of how we’ve torn women down for so long as entertainment, and now it’s time to celebrate them and raise them up.