Hold My Beer

"Often we need to be reminded how beyond capable we are of doing hard things. as the daughter of a force of a mom & a steady rock of a dad, i was raised to believe i could do it all in the face of uncertainty & adversity. i hope u know that u can 2."

(Alana Springsteen / X, Oktober 11, 2024)

When Ella Langley released her new single 'You Look Like You Love Me' (a duet with Riley Green) on June 21, 2024, it was a risky gamble. After all the song was just written for fun and was never intended for release. In addition, the song begins with a spoken part that was (to date) completely out of step with the times.

But the song quickly became a huge hit, and just six months later it is sitting at number 1 on the radio (Billboard Country Airplay) chart as of December 6, 2024. This makes it not only the first number 1 hit for newcomer Ella Langley, but also (sadly) the only Country Airplay number 1 hit by a female artist in the past year. Even Lainey Wilson couldn't achieve that.

Apart from its perfect visuals and the catchy melody, 'You Look Like You Love Me' stands out particularly because of its spoken verses. And whenever new ideas prove to be exceptionally successful, the first imitators soon appear. Or in other words: a new trend emerges.

When 24-old Alana Springsteen released two new songs on October 18, 2024, one of them also began with a spoken intro, the content of which was even reminiscent of the situation described in 'You Look Like You Love Me'. For the stadium-sized anthem (as quoted from antimusic.com) 'hold my beer' also tells of a woman entering a bar:

I know what you're thinkin' when I walk in the room.
Yeah, you're sizin' me up from the jump,
'cause I'm sunkissed and blonde and I got a little drawl.
Like I might be good for some fun
and you're jokin' with your boys and I see it on your face,
you think I look too sweet to be a threat.

(Hold My Beer / Alana Springsteen, Delacey, Ido Zmishlany, Sarah Solovay)

But the song quickly proves what it really wants to say. It's about female self-confidence that doesn't allow itself to be belittled. So the phrase hold my beer wants to convey, now let me show you what I mean:

Hold my beer
and watch this shit right here.
With my eyes closed, with my hands tied,
I'ma show you how it's done, baby, if you don't mind,
just hold my beer!

(Hold My Beer / Alana Springsteen, Delacey, Ido Zmishlany, Sarah Solovay)

It is the confident opposite of the other track 'cowboy', which is about a disappointed love relationship. In the accompanying press release, Alana Springsteen says of the two songs: "To put it in the simplest terms, 'cowboy' is my past and 'hold my beer' is my future."

It wasn't until autumn of 2022 that Columbia Records / Sony Nashville had signed Alana Springsteen and almost a year later (August of 2023) released her much-acclaimed full-length debut album entitled "TWENTY SOMETHING" with 18 songs. Just 3 months later, the deluxe version of it followed with 3 additional tracks.

When Alana Springsteen released the acoustic EP "Live from NPR's Tiny Desk" (a well-known video platfrom from National Public Radio) with 4 songs on December 6, 2024, she was not only a co-writer on all of them, but the project also serves as a bridge from the previous to the upcoming album. As 2 songs are from "TWENTY SOMETHING", while the other two are new.

Cecelia Frey from Illinois, who calls herself CeCe as an artist, is still pretty unknown. She competed in the second season of the casting show X-Factor (2012) and currently only has a distribution deal with EMPIRE. On October 25, 2024 she released her first EP with 4 songs. And on it, the title track 'All Boots' interestingly enough also starts off with a spoken intro. And which also talks about someone entering a bar. In this case, however, it is a man. And he got a problem, as he seems to be far too full of himself.

But it doesn't take long until the girls -as the video clearly demonstrates- bring him back down to earth: if you ain't got it by now, you never get it, you're all boots, no cowboy!

Me and my girls at our usual spot,

sippin' bourbon, just chillin' at the bar.

When a boy walks in with that cheesy ass grin,

and we know that he's tryin' too hard.

He said, ladies, let me buy y'all a shot,

and he's flashin' that shiny black card.

But he looks like a clown from the hat straight down to his boots.

(All Boots / Cecelia Frey, Chase Stockman, Joe Henderson, McKay Stevens)

 

Together with the very convincing 'Cowboy Cry', the project represents a step towards country for the artist. It remains to be seen whether more will come of it, as her first few releases on Spotify were very much focused on pop and hip-hop. For now however, she simply states about herself: "[I'm]  just a small town girl trying to leave behind great songs." And that's already very much in the spirit of the country genre.