Getting over your ex is not easy — Taylor Swift says so. For those who have tried to imagine what the blonde’s songs would be like if she had relationships with women, we have the answer: Fletcher, who even had the courage to mention the name of his current ex-girlfriend in the title of a song.
“I think the reason I started talking about my relationships was because I really wanted to see that in music. I felt a need to feel this representation. I can only be free in my music. I’m navigating life and being able to talk about my experiences of loving women along this path has been liberating,” Fletcher tells g1.
Cari Elise Fletcher, a 30-year-old American, is one of the attractions at Lollapalooza this Friday (22), the same day as the release of her album “In Search of The Antidote Tour” (g1 listened, and tells below). She performs on the festival’s main stage. On Wednesday (20), she sang at Cine Joia, with the São Paulo venue packed with around 1200 fans.
“I’m so happy to be here, it’s so vibrant, alive and crazy. Yesterday was so crazy, I had a lot of women screaming at me, I autographed a lot of breasts. My first time in Brazil, my mother would be so proud.”
According to her, the volume of the fans’ shouting at Cine Joia was 116 decibels, equivalent to the volume of a plane taking off. For the mostly female audience, she sang for about an hour, but you could barely hear her voice. Blame the low microphone sound, but also because of the shouting.
Fletcher began his career on the North American version of “The X-Factor”. She released her first EP, “Finding Fletcher”, in 2016. In the same year, “you ruined new york city for me” came out. Her first album, “Girl of My Dreams”, came out in 2022.
That’s when the 30-year-old singer broke out, thanks to “Becky’s Is So Hot.” which went viral on TikTok. The lyrics are about how attractive her ex’s girlfriend (who is now her ex’s ex) was.
In the song, she says things like, “If I were you I’d probably be with her. It makes me want to hit her when I see her because Becky looks so hot in her vintage t-shirt.”
Fletcher has already said that he was “stalking” his ex-girlfriend, YouTuber Shannon Beveridge, when he saw a photo of her with her new romance — Becky. “She was wearing an old t-shirt, one of my ex’s that I was wearing. I looked at that photo and thought: wow, she’s hot.”
Before its official release, “Becky” already had over 2.6 million views on TikTok.
But, did Fletcher overcome it? It seems like not so much. In the recent “‘Doing Better”, from the new album, she starts the song with the phrase “Your girlfriend never thanked me for making her go viral”.
But she guarantees that the new album is more “about her” than “about others”.
“On the other records it was always about other people, about blaming other people. I was like pointing at everyone but myself. But in this one things are pointed out to me, even if I explore more relationships I will be talking about myself, it is my ego speaking, my reflections. It’s a very deep reflection on myself in relationships, friendships and even self-love.”
Like Taylor Swift, relationships gone right or wrong are the basis of Fletcher’s songwriting. Often, the story of this relationship stands out, as fans want to know exactly who each album or song was made for.
And this, of course, has a positive point. There aren’t many women in pop music writing about female relationships, actually. You can count the amount on your fingers. It is precisely because of this lack that Fletcher is able to reach such a large audience.
Fletcher doesn’t have great compositions. In fact, her lyrics are simple and common, but with a special way of telling each story, like in “Becky’s Is So Hot”. By giving so many details, fans have the freedom to create plots and theorize about the compositions. The singer takes advantage and surfs this wave, capitalizing on the speculation created by third parties about her love life.
The recent “The Eras of Us” was written after Fletcher met his ex-girlfriend on “The Eras Tour”, Taylor Swift’s tour that passed through Brazil. In song form, she allows her fans to watch an almost soap opera in which she is the main character.
Even Fletcher agrees that he is indeed constructing a narrative, but makes it clear that his inspiring muse will always be “love.”
“Everyone wants to know who each song is for, about who the song is for. I have a lot of different muses, people I’ve kissed, people I’ve loved, people I haven’t kissed. Love is one of my biggest muses, so people can speculate whatever they want, I don’t care. Someone told me that my music sounds like the story of a character in a movie. It has a story, a narrative.”
She believes that she can attract so many fans because she has included situations in her songs that occurred with her in a specific way, but at the same time it is a universal experience for anyone who listens to her music.
The most personal EP, “The S(ex) Tapes”, is an odyssey about living in a yo-yo relationship, with comings and goings, with references to Shannon Beveridge (the ex), who participated in the production of the project while the two spent quarantine together, after they have finished. The EP even has a song called “Sex (With My Ex).”
The dance pop “Girl of My Dreams” is an intimate portrait of vulnerability, confessions and sentimental confusion, including even the envy of those who are with their ex-love.
In the most recent, “In Search of The Antidote Tour”, Fletcher goes from zero to one hundred in the album’s 11 tracks, between extreme self-confidence and melancholy at not moving forward in his love life. Confusingly, Fletcher says she is better, searching for her own sanity, but still explores memories of the relationship that no longer exists. The album moves away from dance pop and enters pop rock.
Asked if he knew Brazilian music, Fletcher mentioned Day Lims, who opened his show at Cine Joia, Carol Bianzin and Jão. All artists with styles very close to hers.
But the singer also commented on her desire to form a partnership with Anitta. The reasons? “I’m a big fan of hers, but I also think she’s really hot,” she said.
What to expect from the show at Lolla?
Fletcher arrived in South America on the eve of the release of his third album, “In Search of The Antidote Tour”, which is scheduled to be released on the day of the show at Lollapalooza Brasil.
In the Chilean version of the festival and in the Cine Joia presentation, this Wednesday (20), she included the new “Doing Better”, “The Eras os Us” and “Lead Me On” in the setlist. With the release of the album on the day of the show, fans can have the opportunity to hear new music.
In the latest performances, in addition to the new songs, Fletcher included songs from the EP ‘you ruined new york city for me’ (2016), ‘The S(ex) Tapes’ (2020) and ‘Girl of My Dreams’, released in 2022 .
See the setlist of Fletcher’s most recent shows:
- Guess We Lied…
- If You’re Gonna Lie
- Sting
- Serial Heartbreaker
- If I Hated You
- Shh…Don’t Say It
- girls girls girls
- Undrunk
- Better Version
- Girl Of My Dreams
- Doing Better
- Healing
- Sex (With My Ex)
- Lead Me On
- All Love
- Eras of Us
- Becky’s So Hot
- Bitter
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