Everything is really bad. For me. I have depression and anxiety. Quarantine has not been good to me and my brain. I had to leave my cool internship in Washington, D.C. to move back in with my parents. I broke up with my long-time boyfriend, and it will not stop raining.
My mind races through every bad scenario day and night, I convince myself all my friends hate me. Sometimes, I’ve even convinced myself that I’m in some weird, purgatory or limbo being punished for something. I am in desperate need of an escape.
People have been finding comfort in books, movies, art, fashion and exercise, but none of those things did much for me. I’ve read every book I bought to read during quarantine. I cannot watch any more terrible Netflix films and my heart can’t take seeing any more animal parents die in Disney movies.
But Kim Petras must have heard my cries and released her latest single, “Malibu.”
Instead of fueling my negative, sad thoughts with classic sad music by Lorde or Mitski, I’ve been listening to upbeat music to help me escape.
Petras is the German pop princess I have been needing. We are past the days of Britney Spears, Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera constantly releasing light, fun bops. Petras is the present and the future of pop music.
Petras has been famous for a while in Europe for other reasons. She’s transgender, and her transition was on several German television shows and documentaries in the early 2000s. She then was a model for a German hair salon chain.
She came into the music spotlight with her 2017 single, “I Don’t Want It at All” and has been releasing pop bangers ever since. This is also when my adoration for her began.
She’s said she doesn’t want to use her identity as a transgender woman as a reason make people flock to her music in an interview with HuffPost.
Petras' song about getting over a person is the summer song I needed. The song is littered with lighthearted alcohol puns including “falling deep into your Curaçao blue” and your “pacific view.” It makes me want to get in the pink convertible I do not own and drive it to a beach that does not exist.
To me, Kim Petras is a pop superhero because every song she’s ever made puts me in a good mood. But “Malibu” is next level.
It has the vibe of “California Gurls,” but it’s updated for 2020 with the perfect amount of “Woo-Ah!”
And if the intoxicating lyrics weren’t enough to make you love it, the queer, beachy music video will. The video is made up of clips from Petras and other stars including Charli XCX, drag queen Aquaria and reality TV star Jonathan Van Ness dancing around their homes.
Watching the video will make you want to make your own video with your friends, Adobe Premiere and Photo Booth backgrounds, and you should. Put on your sunglasses and swimsuit, turn on “Malibu” and pretend you live in southern California instead of your parents' house during a pandemic.
