By Katherine Llave
Laufey, the up-and-coming Icelandic singer-songwriter renowned for her jazz-pop fusion style, has donned an angelic and ethereal look worthy of the heavens to tell her audience quite the opposite: She is not your fucking goddess.
As the first single of four new tracks to be added to her album Bewitched: The Goddess Edition, “Goddess” tells the tale of a love lost due to the idealization of both fame and romantic expectations. Although the song is largely written from a romantic lover’s perspective, these lyrics are just as applicable to Laufey’s perception in the public eye and the pressures to seem “perfect” to her audience.
In Laufey’s previous work, she has crafted an elegant and delicate persona, being curious yet innocent and almost naive about love in her 2022 album, “Everything I Know About Love.” Her sophomore album, “Bewitched,” which she released in September 2023, paints a more damaged portrayal of love, exploring themes of unrequited affection, betrayals and bitter goodbyes, and an enchantment that borders on obsession. “Goddess” expands on this story of love and implicates the audience in a tragedy of epic proportions.
The song begins with a gentle progression of piano chords, which steadily quickens into a succession of arpeggios, capturing Laufey’s increasing anguish. In the chorus, Laufey sings,
Were you surprised by me
When you took me home
When the glamor wore off
Reduced to skin and bone
These lyrics speak on the expectations placed upon her as Laufey emphasizes the barriers between her perceived appearance onstage and her genuine, flawed self. She sings,
I’m a goddess on stage
Human when we’re alone
Laufey captures the essential plight of both an esteemed celebrity and anyone searching for love: we must reckon with our inner humanity and resist putting those we love on a pedestal, so much so that in our minds they are incapable of doing harm.
The song is filled with dreamy and melancholic vocals along with delicate and moving instrumentals, a characteristic of Laufey’s work and a mark of her extensive musical background. During the climactic bridge to the song, the instrumentation becomes a full-blown orchestral crescendo, with strings amplifying the desired effect of both pain and pure feminine rage— a side to Laufey we rarely get to see.
In a grief-stricken outpour of accusation and emotion, Laufey belts out,
You took me for a fool
You stole my youth
You wanted this so much
You watched me rise
Then killed my light
And now you know
I’m not your fucking goddess
The orchestra and vocals combine in a dramatic and explosive melody, fit for both a lost romance and a young woman dealing with the pressures of fame and parasocial relationships.
At 24, Laufey has been in the limelight for much of her young adult years, and this will no doubt have an impact on her psyche. She drops her first f-bomb in her entire discography, and it feels like a fitting finger up to both the lover who mistakenly idolized her, and the masses who constantly exert pressure on her. Celebrity stan culture is no joke.
Although the song at first seems to be expressing grief for a romantic experience, from the audience’s perspective we could also take it as a warning that with extreme support of our favorite artists comes an often unbearable pressure to perform and to be perfect. To be a goddess. But Laufey is here to give a gentle, yet firm reminder that musicians are not infallible gods, they are human.
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