Busy weekend for battered women. Since Friday, social networks have been delighted with new songs by Miley Cyrus and Shakira, messages addressed in a barely veiled way to their respective exes. with these songsFlowers for the former, and an untitled track posted on the YouTube channel of Argentine DJ Bizarrap for the latter), the two stars are part of a beloved tradition on the world pop scene: settling scores in song.
Because before Miley Cyrus and Shakira, there was Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Pink… all of them signed planetary successes singing their bitterness, their anger or their sadness in songs directly inspired by their romantic experiences. Without ever betraying the anonymity of the main stakeholders, but always leaving enough clues in his texts for his fans to spread theories on the Internet. The result is artistic productions with guaranteed famous repercussions, for better or for worse.
Bile and millions of views
For Shakira, there is no doubt: the Colombian singer and soccer player Gerard Piqué announced his breakup last June, after twelve years of relationship and two children. Very quickly, the tabloid press infidelized the Spanish athlete, now in a relationship with the young Clara Chia. Both are not saved from Shakira in her new title, which accumulates 123 million views in four days:
“You left my mother-in-law for a neighbor, with the press at the door and debts to the tax authorities,” says the interpreter with more than 60 million records sold. “I was too big for you, now you have one like you (…) you traded a Ferrari for a Twingo, a Rolex for a Casio.”
Cornered, and despite his less than stellar position as a cheating father, Gerard Piqué has relied on humor ever since. In response to this killer rhyme, the footballer announced a partnership with Casio and appeared behind the wheel of a Twingo, as reported. SoFoot.
Direct attack or wink, two different schools
With Flowers, Miley Cyrus has shown (a little) more subtlety to address her ex-partner. This pop song with disco accents recounts a universal experience: that of recovering one’s self-esteem after a disappointment in love. But the former interpreter of Hannah Montana has spread enough clues for her public to understand that it is about Liam Hemsworth, with whom she shared her life for ten years until her breakup in 2019.
As of the single’s release date, January 13, the actor’s birthday The Hunger Games. On Twitter, fans are bringing up other references: including the Saint Laurent dress she’s wearing in the clip, a brand the couple are said to have often adopted during their red carpet appearances.
The winks would even be found in the melody of the piece. Many netizens have pointed out its similarity to that of When I was your Man, a song by American recording artist Bruno Mars. He sings about his regret at losing a partner he didn’t treat her right. Within FlowersOn the other side of the board, Miley Cyrus regrets not having received the attention she wanted. And when Bruno sings “I should have bought you flowers” in her chorus, Miley replies in hers: “I can buy myself flowers.”
Could it be a coincidence that the only known video of Miley Cyrus’s (brief) marriage to Liam Hemsworth shows precisely the two lovers dancing to a Bruno Mars hit?
The downside of being suspected of sleeping with Jay-Z
But Shakira and Miley Cyrus are like small players against Beyoncé who, in 2016, dedicated an entire album to a (then alleged) infidelity of her husband, Jay-Z. In a context of Afrofeminism and homage to black American culture, the 12 songs that make up the album Lemonade details all the stages of a romantic betrayal, from discovery to reconciliation.
Since the singer and rapper have been one of the hottest couples in showbiz for 20 years, fans didn’t have to think long about who would be the caustic lyric of Lemonade they were approached. But one rhyme was accompanied by very real consequences, which acted as a reminder of the limits of this artistic exercise in the age of social media. It’s in one of the singles from Lemonade, I’m sorryor Beyoncé swings:
“He only wants me when I’m gone / Phones his well-groomed Becky.”
Immediate quake within the “Beyhive”, Beyoncé’s fan community. As a single netizen, millions of Twitter users set out in search of the mysterious Becky…and soon find someone to fight to defend the idol’s honor from her.
Hearing only their anger and unfounded rumors, it is fashion designer Rachel Roy that they take their anger out on. She is she then becomes the target of violent cyberbullying, fueled by the silence of Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Netizen attacks extend to Rachel Roy’s then-16-year-old daughter, reportedly The cut at the time. So much so that the designer had to publish an official press release to ensure that she had never slept with the American rapper.
Taylor Swift, subject matter expert
Despite the media coverage of LemonadeWithout a doubt, it is Taylor Swift who would win the game of settling musical scores: throughout her 17-year career, the 33-year-old singer has never stopped drawing inspiration from her experience to write her songs, essentially centered on disappointed loves. And because the young woman has often dated famous men, her albums have always been the subject of people reviews by her fans and the tabloid press.
The one who has almost always made it the golden rule of never explicitly revealing who her texts are addressed to has become a master in the art of disseminating clues in her words. The examples are legion in the ten albums that make up her work, and that of the piece last Kiss takes full account of the devious paths it takes.
In 2008, when she was just 18 years old, Taylor Swift revealed on a television set that singer Joe Jonas ended their relationship during a “27 second” phone call. Two years later, the artist presents the album Speak Nowin which it appears last Kiss, melancholic chronicle of a disappointed love. And his most observant fans immediately notice that the song’s intro runs for, very exactly, 27 seconds. Which deduces that the title was inspired by her breakup with Joe Jonas.
If this treasure hunt has allowed the young woman to forge an unbreakable bond with her audience -as shown by her sales figures, which are always more consistent from one album to another-, it has also earned her being the favorite target of celebrity media. for years. Critics now happily laud her songwriting talents—she’s the only woman in history to win the Grammy Award for album of the year three times—but the singer has long been portrayed as the epitome of ex-girlfriend to ex-girlfriend. that must be avoided. the one that inevitably spews her vengeful cheekiness across the CDs.
secured succession
Taylor Swift has been emulated. From Conan Gray to Troye Sivan to Phoebe Bridgers, a host of young English-speaking artists cite her work as an inspiration. But her true heir is undoubtedly Olivia Rodrigo, who swept away all the competition with her debut album, sourlaunched in 2021. Carried by planetary tube Driver’s license, the record is full of breakup songs, sometimes melancholic, sometimes overwrought. After a quick investigation, fans of the 18-year-old star deduced that she was singing about her resentment of singer Joshua Bassett.
From Twitter posts to TikTok videos, fans are turning against him and Sabrina Carpenter, a third star, suspected of stealing the handsome child from the hapless Olivia. But the two maligned artists quickly found a way to bounce back…in song: one with a track titled lie lie liethe second of the piece fur, two titles whose cryptic texts sound like direct answers to Olivia Rodrigo. This love triangle has delighted young fans of hers and launched three careers at once.
These chant-attacks, although they seem to have multiplied in recent years, are nothing new. Already in 1978, the singer Marvin Gaye dedicated his entire album here dear to his divorce from his first wife, Anna Gordy Gaye. The French song was not far behind: throughout the 1970s, Michel Berger and Véronique Sanson maintained a musical correspondence after their breakup, in emblematic songs such as Will you be there?followed by I’ll be thereeither the fearsome.
“A sexist point of view”?
If men lend themselves to the game, how is it that history only seems to remember the pieces signed by women, and many times against them? On this, Taylor Swift has her idea:
“Some people will see the depth with which you have created a song, they will see that you put your emotions into it, that it has value and that it is positive and sincere,” he told Australian radio. 2DayFM in 2014. “Others will say, ‘She only writes about her ex!’ That’s a very sexist point of view to me.”
“Nobody says that about Ed Sheeran. Nobody says that about Bruno Mars. They write songs about their exes, their current girlfriends, their love lives, and yet nobody waves a red flag.”
Source: BFM TV
