Photo: The Guardian
Norwegian indie singer Girl In Red betrayed her iconic color on October 9, after releasing her newest single “Blue,” and on October 23, she released the “Blue” EP.
Changing her color ended up generating 2.2 million streams on the single within the first week. The song follows her usual paradoxical style of devastating lyrics and danceable beats. It showcases her talent as a lyricist; the song portrays the story vulnerably. It’s about a former relationship she’s not yet over and how she tried to change after the breakup. She spent months trying to improve who she was, hoping it would be enough to get her ex back. But her ex is thriving without her. She feels like she is still stuck in this relationship, as if it had just ended– but the literal and metaphorical denim wash has faded. Time has passed. Towards the end of the song, she sees her ex again and falls apart. All the progress she has made vanishes.
My favorite part about the track is the bridge. The tempo speeds up to represent her fast heartbeat as she’s face to face with her ex once again, after all the months have passed. Each word in the bridge is sung slowly, providing emphasis on each word. It is meant to reflect the intense anxiety she was experiencing at that moment. The bridge reflects the stress she was feeling when her ex spoke with her for the first time post-breakup.
Before this song, her last solo release was in 2025, titled “Hemingway.” The song is about her drinking problem, which she refuses to address despite all of her loved ones’ concerns. The song told the world that she has struggles she needs to face before she can continue releasing music. One of the lyrics in “Blue” is, “You turned me away, said I needed more time healing. Spent my whole summer tryna get my shit on track. Increasing all my chances in the fall I’d get you back.” However, after she sees her ex, she unravels, and her healing evaporates. With the added context of the music video, it furthers the idea that her self-improvement was unsuccessful. The video shows her apartment a mess, smoking and extinguishing cigarettes on her arm.
The next song in the EP is “Missing Person,” a song she likely wrote in summer when she was trying to get her life on track. The main chorus line of the song is “In your absence, I’m met with my actions, I’m met with the silence that won’t let me sleep, I’m met with all the reasons that led you to leave, but you’re my person.” She still desperately wanted her ex-girlfriend back, and was trying to change so she could win her over. My favorite lyric within this song is “You can arrest me with good reason, I ruined your heart, I’m sure that’s treason.” It’s clear from this line that, despite being separated, she holds her ex in high esteem and believes that hurting her is grounds for extreme punishment.
The third track on the EP is “Worst Case.” This song is significantly shorter than the other three, at only 1:39 compared to the other ranging from 3-4 minutes. The most repeated line in this song is “I was afraid.” This song was likely written at a similar time to “Missing Person,” where she reflects on her actions within the relationship. The core message of this song is that her fear destroyed their relationship. She was afraid of plans, of moving in together; she was afraid of committing to the relationship, and fear of commitment drove the two of them apart.
The final EP track, and my personal favorite, is “Clean Slate.” I can’t help but bop my head every time this song comes on, especially when I hear the chorus, which is super upbeat despite the lyrics not being so. This song, in my opinion, is the only one she wrote while in the relationship. The others glorified the romance to an extent, but this one seems to be the truth of how it was while they were dating, constantly getting into fights and needing to take breaks. My favorite part of the entire EP is when she sings, “I’m bein’ so avoidant, there’s no place to hide, I’m fleetin’ like the moment.” Her voice while singing this is just so perfect.
“Blue” was her first solo release in a year since “Hemmingway.” In June, she collaborated with Norwegian rapper Marstein. They released a Norwegian song titled “RØDT HVITT BLÅTT,” which translates to “Red White Blue.” This was potentially an Easter egg in her new music. She also hinted at this color switch-up in September when she changed the Spotify album cover for her most famous song “We Fell In Love In October,” changing her iconic red sweater to blue. She claimed online that this was merely “a glitch”; however, we now know she was teasing her new music.
Girl In Red has returned to music, releasing a four-track EP. I love this EP, and it leaves me extremely disappointed that we only got four new songs. But I can’t be too mad, as the midterm elections were a blue sweep, and I feel as though she played a small part in that. I can’t help but think this Norwegian artist rebranding her platform set forth America’s color rebrand as well.
