It came as little surprise to me when Brittany Tomlinson, known professionally as “Brittany Broski,” released her debut single, “The Sun,” on April 4. Along with her hilariously honest podcast, “Broski Report,” she also routinely hosts celebrities on her medieval-themed talk show, “Royal Court,” and has met famous artists like Harry Styles, Beyonce and Hozier. A common theme of Brittany’s content is discussing music and its impact on her life. She is often singing on her podcast, so it made sense to me that she would eventually release her own.
Broski’s rise to fame began in 2019 after a TikTok video of her trying kombucha went viral. After the video blew up and Broski became known as “kombucha girl” online, she was fired from her job at a bank, flown out to LA by a kombucha company and she said “it has not stopped since then.”
Broski is one of those content creators that seems effortlessly funny. She doesn’t have to post clickbait or do anything extravagant to get people to tune into her weekly podcast. I mean, “Broski Report” is just an hour of Broski alone in a room talking about anything from book reviews to what celebrities she finds most attractive, yet her personality is enough to make the podcast engaging from start to finish.
A few weeks before releasing her single, Broski released a cover of “Adore You” by Harry Styles. I loved the visual aspect of the video: the backdrop of billowing red curtains and a painted wall of fluffy white clouds were reminiscent of a renaissance painting. Broski often talks about her admiration of art history on her podcast, so I appreciated the references in the set design.
As for the cover itself, Broski took the pop song and made it deeper and sultrier. I saw several people in the comment section saying they loved the “Hozier spin” she put into Styles’ song, which reminded me of how Hozier covered the Arctic Monkeys’ “Do I Wanna Know,” which is probably my favorite cover that any artist has done.
Broski released the visualizer for “The Sun” on YouTube on April 4. Once again, I am in love with the artistic concept of the song. The video features the same curtains and clouds as the cover, with Broski wearing a gorgeous red corset dress and matching gloves. In several shots, Broski is wistfully gazing into the distance while holding an apple with an arrow pierced through it.
Fans of Broski have often said she has a “classically beautiful” face, comparing her to ancient paintings. There is even a TikTok video of an artist painting her, with thousands of comments complimenting Broski’s “romantic features” and “old fashioned beauty.” I think that Broski fully embraced this discourse with her music, playing into the renaissance painting aesthetic.
As well as the visual aspect of the piece, I also really love the lyrics. The song begins with a biblical reference: “Turned your water into wine.” Broski has several podcast episodes detailing her experience with religion and the Christian church, so I enjoyed the nod to that as the first verse of the song.
In the chorus, Broski sings “How am I too good and still not enough,” and “I’ll give you my light, but I can’t be the sun.” In my opinion, Broski is saying that while she can devote time and energy into a relationship and make someone else happy, she can’t be the only source of happiness for that person. Broski sounds passionately frustrated, fed up with the notion that she must be responsible for another person’s happiness.
Her line, “How am I too good and still not enough” made me think of a moment on Jake Shane’s podcast, “Therapuss,” where Broski discussed her encounters with men after she had gained internet popularity and explained how she feels taken advantage of when men flirt with her, only to later say it was just a joke, or only being interested in her views and fame. I interpreted not only the lyrics, but the fact that Broski created a very serious, emotional song, as a way of establishing herself as someone who can and should be taken seriously. Even if most of her content is comedic, Broski is demanding to still be seen and respected.
Although Broski’s venture into the music space was met with much positivity, there was, of course, plenty of negative discourse as well. Many TikTok users said the song sounds too overproduced, with some comments saying it sounded like a song that Love Island would play — which wasn’t meant to be a compliment.
While I do agree that I would have loved a more stripped back song from her, I can’t deny that the sound and creative design feels very fitting of Broski and her image, so it makes sense that she would create a song like “The Sun.” I also think it’s unfair to criticize the project too harshly, because for a music debut, the song is very well done and powerful. I’m looking forward to the next musical project that Broski has up her sleeve.
