Cry Forever to This Queer Singer's New Heartbreak Bop
Music

Cry Forever to This Queer Singer's New Heartbreak Bop

by Jonathan Chau

We all need a song we can weep in the club to, and on her debut single, Elina Eriksson gives us exactly that. "Discover Her" is an emotional ballad with minimal production, but draws from electro-pop at its exterior — another flawless dance crier in a long lineage from fellow Scandinavian pop stars, from Robyn to Sigrid.

The lyrics are frank, speaking on the betrayal of a lover, and the pain is heard clearly in Eriksson's voice. "How many times do you have to discover her?/ So easy for you, not gonna go back to we were," she hauntingly sings.

Produced and written solely by Eriksson, the elements of the song are simple. It's clean, straightforward, and used to highlight the vocal melodies. The sounds of a piano are placed at the forefront of the track as electronic beats slowly glimmer. And her musical inspirations reflect this: "Tove Lo, Lykke Li, Robyn, Shura and Bon Iver" are her favorites. "Growing up I listened a lot to Mariah Carey and '90s pop like Britney Spears," Eriksson continues.

"Even though the lyrics are not very positive, I wanted it to have a feel-good and uplifting feeling to it," Eriksson says about the track. "I want people to dance to this song, feel strong, and good about themselves like 'I can get through anything,' even though life's not always great."

The queer singer-songwriter had relocated to London for a year, where she studied and focused on producing more seriously but also met the muse for "Discover Her." Now based back in Stockholm, her hometown, she's nostalgic of her brief time in London, reflecting on her past relationship. "I felt like I had to go back to my roots," she says of Sweden, "and figure myself out a bit."

"Discover Her" is the result of her journey within, looking back on a London lover that betrayed her: "Parts of [the song] describe this one night when she didn't come home cause she was seeing someone else behind my back," Eriksson says. "And ever since, I've always wondered how it can be so easy for some people to just lie and hurt other people and not even feel a little bit bad about it."

While Eriksson follows a classic cheating narrative, the heartbreaking song is something anyone can relate to and listen to when going through a similar situation. "Today I'm in a happy relationship with someone else, but everything you go through in life affects you in certain ways," Eriksson says. "I think this relationship taught me a lot about myself and about people."

Stream "Discover Her," below, and cry for days.

Photo courtesy of Elina Eriksson