Revenge once was a dish best served cold. Now you serve it loud.
At least it is if you’re a singer eager to make an impression on the charts and re-establish your credentials as a top-tier pop star. (The Independent)
That is the logic seemingly behind Miley Cyrus’s comeback single, “Flowers”. Pop’s one-time enfant terrible breaks a three-year silence with the release of the song on 13 January. That day is also the 33rd birthday of her ex Liam Hemsworth, whom she divorced in January 2020 after two years of matrimony.
“I can love me better than you,” sings Cyrus, her husky voice splintered with emotion.
She wouldn’t be the first to adopt that strategy (the single is followed by a new LP, Endless Summer Vacation, on 10 March). There is a secret history of pop stars using revenge songs to leverage their way up music’s greasy pole. If in doubt, goes the logic, rip your ex to shreds – and watch the public come running for more.
Consider many of your favourite pop stars – and then reflect on their best-known songs. Taylor Swift? Until last year’s early midlife crisis masterpiece Midnights, her biggest hits were invariably those where she took a blunderbuss to former beaus. The rumour is it’s about Jake Gyllenhaal, with whom Swift was romantically involved for about three months in 2010.
Lana Del Rey, the L.A.-based singer-songwriter is using one strategically placed billboard to promote her forthcoming album, “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd,” and it’s in her ex-boyfriend’s hometown of Tulsa, Okla. “There’s only one billboard and it’s in Tulsa,”
Shakira has also turned the end of her relationship with Barcelona footballer Gerard Piqué into a revenge song.
A no-nonsense attack as a reaction to the betrayal after 11 years together and the birth of two children, Milan and Sasha. All destroyed because of his new girlfriend, Clara Chia Marti, who is over 20 years younger than Shakira. "I'm worth twice as much as 22. You swapped a Ferrari for a Twingo. You swapped a Rolex for a Casio", sinks the Colombian artist.
Selena Gomez in “Lose you to love” of 2019 put all the lies of the ex Justin Bieber in the public square. Ariana Grande gave a damn and made the names right: in “Thank U, Next” of 2019 she lined up her exes Pete Davidson, Mac Miller and Big Sean as bowling pins.
Timberlake he revved up his career by sacrificing his ex, Britney Spears. The lyrics to "Cry Me a River" were inspired
by his split from Spears. However, Timberlake made the implicit explicit in the accompanying video, which not only featured a dancer styled to look like Britney Spears, but was filmed in a way that suggested that Spears had been unfaithful to Timberlake (as rumored in the tabloids).
“Bob Dylan mastered the art of the take-down early in his career,” says Helen Brown, The Independent’s music critic. “‘Goodbye’s too good a word, babe,’ he sneered on ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’ (1963), probably addressing his on-off girlfriend Suze Rotolo, who appeared with Dylan on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, the album on which the song appeared.”
Dylan got a taste of his own medicine, she continues, when another girlfriend, Joan Baez, wrote her own song about her time with “the unwashed phenomenon” in 1972.
