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Tag: MARINA discography

  • MARINA May Be the First Female Pop Star to Freely Let Go of “Girlhood”

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    For the past few years, MARINA has been living out the lyrics of her lead single from Princess of Power, “Butterfly.” Slowly changing shape inside a shroom-saturated chrysalis that has transformed her into a fundamentally “happier, more ‘up’” person. Not only that, but tripping on mushrooms also seemed to make her understand the wisdom of embracing one’s “fate”: that is to say, aging. Not necessarily in a “let me go gray (though MARINA already did do that for a period of time, starting during the lockdowns of 2020) and lose all sense of pride in my appearance” kind of way, but rather, in a way that acknowledges the passage of time. This done, first and foremost, with her inspiration behind “Cuntissimo,” which stemmed from MARINA looking specifically toward older women as her “totems.” Not just in the lyrical content (e.g., “Push-up bra, in my diamonds/Gift from my ex-husband”), but in terms of “how to be” in general as she was made keenly aware of “leaving girlhood behind” this year.

    So it is that she wanted to stop “idolizing” or “glamorizing” youth and putting the especial pressure on herself about “staying young.” Not only as a woman (the gender that always experiences the most stress when it comes to “being hot,” which remains synonymous with being young), but as a pop star. Thus, in order to help her on her journey toward this form of “aging acceptance,” MARINA created a mood board (both literally and figuratively) consisting of such icons as Salma Hayek (name-checked in “Cuntissimo”), Thelma and Louise (also name-checked in “Cuntissimo”), Sophia Loren, Eartha Kitt, Jamie Lee Curtis and Madonna (specifically during her The Immaculate Collection photoshoot).

    And while Madonna is the undisputed pioneer of breaking down barriers for female pop stars to even be “allowed” to keep making music/remain “relevant” past a certain age (i.e., twenty-five), MARINA appears to be the first one to not bother trying to seem younger than she really is (because, yes, it’s no secret that Madonna has made her fair share of bids, particularly on the surgical front, to remain as fresh as possible). An effort that has been concerted in the years leading up to her fortieth birthday on October 10, 2025. In fact, the day before her big “decade shift,” MARINA shared the image of a letter she had written to herself a year ago about where she wanted to be at this juncture. A peak example of her “manifesting” capabilities. Of the sort she also displayed when she wrote Love + Fear’s “Enjoy Your Life,” a track that was, despite the positivity oozing from it, written at a time when MARINA was quite depressed. To pull herself out of this state, it was as though she had to trick her mind into believing she was this exuberant, this “chill” about everything (e.g., “Sit back and enjoy your problems/You don’t always have to solve them/‘Cause your worst days, they are over/So enjoy your life”).

    This was before mushrooms entered her life and “positivity” became so much easier to unlock. And, of all the songs on Princess of Power, “Rollercoaster” most clearly embodies the way in which she “altered her mind” to tap into an entirely new way of thinking. Not just about the present, but her future. One in which she realizes, “I wanna go where the free ones live now/Never going back to the place I lived, no.” And the place she once lived was in the petty concerns and fears wrought by youth (more accurately, trying to cling to it), the very thing that society tells women is the most/best they’ll ever have to offer. To this point, MARINA stated during The Zach Sang Show, “The trick of the patriarchy is to make you think that your value disappears after you’re, like, not deemed ‘attractive.’ But you look at these older women and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s when they actually step into their power.’ So, like, that’s what’s waiting for you on the other side. And it’s just such a shame that that’s kind of, like, covered with this superficial thing. This idea that we think wrinkles equals ‘not beautiful.’”

    Of course, MARINA still struggles with “fully letting go” of the indoctrination that comes not just with being a regular “adult girl,” but one who has worked in “the industry” for years. So it is that she admitted during her Eat the World Q&A in London that she wouldn’t necessarily rule out Botox, etc., what with even the steeliest force not being immune to the pressures of Hollywood. But even so, turning forty this year forced her to ask the question (also on The Zach Sang Show), “How do I wanna feel as I get older?” Answering herself with, “I don’t wanna feel ashamed about it, I don’t wanna feel like I have to hang on to youth. I want to have the same space that men are given to age. And I also wanna accrue all the positive things that men do, which is wisdom, knowledge, respect, power. And I think we’re in such a perfect place for that to be in motion.”

    Alas, she seems to be more than slightly overlooking the fact that it’s not in motion at all, but rather, at a simultaneous standstill/in a time machine going backward. This much made evident by the current U.S. administration, as well as Taylor Swift’s tradwife-touting The Life of a Showgirl (which, yes, is ironic, considering the life of a showgirl should come across as being way more freeing and salacious).

     And one supposes that this is what makes a pop star like MARINA so important at this particular moment in time. A woman who is in total control of herself (without using horrifying terms like “girlboss”), freely pronounces that she’s fine being perennially single and conscientiously child-free. She is a woman who insists, “Spread me like a picnic on the floor in the forest/‘Cause I don’t wanna live if I can’t be honest.”

    Right now, the honest truth for MARINA is this: “I don’t think older women get celebrated enough. And now that I’m… ‘ta-ta-ing’ to youth and, like, waving goodbye to it, I was, like, what is my future?” If 2024’s Eat the World and this year’s Princess of Power are to be consistent benchmarks that foretell what it might be (at least creatively speaking), MARINA’s looks very promising/embracing of her age and whatever comes with it—physically and emotionally. Which means that she’s establishing a healthy example for those pop stars coming up in the present, arguably being the first truly modern woman to do so.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • A Song Called “Man’s World” Is, Ironically, Far More Female-Empowering Than Katy Perry’s “Woman’s World”

    A Song Called “Man’s World” Is, Ironically, Far More Female-Empowering Than Katy Perry’s “Woman’s World”

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    Back in 2020 (that ominous year), MARINA found it to be the perfect time to release “Man’s World,” the first single from what would become her fifth album, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land. While the latter didn’t come out until 2021, “Man’s World” set the tone for the overall theme of the record—which was that man had fucked the world over. And how that fucking was a large part of the catalyst for the pandemic. After all, were it not for men’s corporate greed, surely the destruction of so many animals’ natural habitats wouldn’t occur. And, in turn, wouldn’t lead to the unnatural commingling of animals in human environments in such a way as to create novel viruses.

    To that point, MARINA works her chorus around the idea that living in a man’s world (with its associated patriarchal values still firmly in place) is the direct cause of Mother Nature’s relentless destruction. A phrase that functions to mean both 1) humans are destroying her and 2) in response, she is destroying them. So it is that MARINA sings, “Mother Nature’s dying, nobody’s keeping score/I don’t wanna live in a man’s world anymore.” Granted, the only thing anyone is keeping score of is how much profit they’re making from the carnage they’ve wrought upon the environment. The excess packaging, the amount of fossil fuel emissions for shipping, the fast fashion throwaways transforming into non-biodegradable piles in places that should be inhabitable but soon will not be. Et cetera.

    All of this is to say that MARINA paints a far more effective and meaningful picture of what it would mean to live in a woman’s world—a matriarchy—by describing the current bleak portrait of a man’s world than Katy Perry does in her lifeless touting of how great women are and that everyone is, in fact, already living in a woman’s world. But obviously, that’s not so.

    If it were, perhaps a man like Dr. Luke wouldn’t be able to freely continue producing “hits” like Perry’s latest single despite his reputation for being an abuser. Whether or not one believes his abuse was sexual (since women are not to be believed, right?), there’s no denying, at the very least, its verbal toxicity in relation to Kesha, the inaugural artist he “took under his wing” in order to solidify a reputation for “nurturing” talent. This would also extend to Perry, whose first major hit, “I Kissed A Girl,” was produced by Dr. Luke. Along with “Hot N Cold,” the second official single from Perry’s “debut” (if you don’t count Katy Hudson), One of the Boys. An album title, incidentally, that feels as though it’s come back to bite her in the ass, considering how much it applies to the notion of continuing to work with someone who has been called out for his long-standing inappropriate behavior. And how much Perry represents a version of “the divine feminine” that is in keeping with pandering to the male gaze.

    There is no better example of that than the video for “Woman’s World,” all part of her latest attempt at a “comeback.” But whoever dealt with the “brainstorming mood boards” and marketing aspects was perhaps too chickenshit to inform Perry that things have changed quite a bit since the last time she released an album, already four years ago (like “Man’s World,” Smile came out in 2020). And, even at that time, Perry’s rhetoric wasn’t striking much of a chord with listeners, with the album barely selling fifty thousand copies in its first week. Compared to the Perry “heyday” of Teenage Dream and even Prism, that was a long way to fall. And, in 2024, it seems Perry still has the mentality of Beyoncé’s approach to feminism circa 2014. Which means, essentially, shouting a lot of hollow, generic phrases (e.g. “She’s a winner, champion/Superhuman, number one/She’s a sister, she’s a mother”—except, like, what if she’s not?) and dressing up as Rosie the Riveter (yes, something Beyoncé also did in 2014).

    Even if one could try to get behind Perry’s hackneyed form of feminism (white feminism, mind you), there is still the atrocious video to get over. One that portrays Perry in a porn fantasy-style version of Rosie the Riveter, complete with her “seductive” wielding of the drill she has in her hand. Contrast this against the ethereal, goddess-coded video for “Man’s World,” and the messaging divide between the two songs is even more marked. With the latter genuinely embracing the notion of a “woman’s world” and the former effectively upholding the status quo of a man’s world in terms of how they want to see women presented in it (that is, if they “must” be). So while MARINA frolics serenely through nature in loose-fitting fabrics with women and men of all different shapes and backgrounds, Perry reinforces the chasm between the sexes with her “us versus them” presentation, rounded out by that presentation being exactly what’s supposed to get an “average straight man” off. This also includes reiterating the trope that it can be a “woman’s world” even if still mirroring the same shit that’s been happening in a patriarchy for centuries.

    Of course, with the true change that would arrive in a “woman’s world,” misogynistic men surely wouldn’t be happy. And yes, the most basic step toward that change is admitting this still is a man’s world—something the aforementioned Beyoncé didn’t want to admit either when she released “Run the World (Girls).” MARINA does that both deftly and poetically when she phrases the need for change like this: “If you have a mother/Daughter or a friend/Maybe it is time/Time you comprehend/The world that you live in/Ain’t the same one as them/So don’t punish me/For not being a man.” In the span of this three-minute, twenty-eight-second call to action, MARINA even manages to broach the unpleasant subject of female subjugation throughout history, singing, “Clouds in the whites of our eyes, we saw it all/Burnt me at the stake, you thought I was a witch/Centuries ago, now you just call me a bitch.”

    Conversely, the “best” Perry can come up with (along with one of her chauvinistic co-writers, Dr. Luke) is the totally vacant lines, “Sexy, confident/So intelligent/She is heaven-sent/So soft, so strong.” This being about the only verse that deviates from the half-hearted chorus, “It’s a woman’s world and you’re lucky to be livin’ in it/You better celebrate/‘Cause, baby, we ain’t goin’ away/It’s a woman’s world and you’re lucky to be livin’ in it.” Perhaps Perry feels that if she keeps repeating it, it might come true.

    But perhaps the next time she considers “writing” a “feminist anthem,” she might want to consult with MARINA, who clearly knows how to do the damn thing (complete with actually having the song produced by Jennifer Decilveo—you know, a woman).

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    Genna Rivieccio

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