Full of passion and first-hand experience, Gina Royale reminds listeners all around the world that it’s okay to not feel okay in the heartfelt and tear-jerking ‘Here’s To You’.
A young alternative-pop female artist from New Jersey, the singer-songwriter Gina Royale is known for her edgy, direct lyrics that are both bluntly honest and unconventionally comforting as they contain the raw emotions that inspired the tracks. Her music is the ideal blend between tender and soft and energetic. Her latest release, Here’s To You, is a powerful and emotional ballad that holds clear influences from successful female artists such as Pink, Christina Perri and Christina Aguilera.
Coming out in the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Month, although not an intentional decision, helps to bring attention to the issue and generate more discussions about mental health, recovery, and the aftermath of the fights people go through every day.
Continuing on the topic of mental health, it is important to mention the song was written as an ode to Gina’s years-long fight against her eating disorders, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
While the song was not written because of May, it deals with some of the issues millions of people go through. Although this song is about Gina’s own experience, which gives it a depth unique to someone who understands the exact mindset she was in during that period, it is able to bring strength to other people struggling with the same disorders. Especially in this month, this song might be able to bring more comfort than at any other moment.
It is, however, not necessary to have gone through a similar experience in order to resonate with Gina and the song itself. The artist’s next level talent in songwriting and her singing allow for the emotions to feel stronger than ever, creating a level of immersion that one usually only finds in media they deeply enjoy or have a unique connection to. Gina Royale is able to create a similar experience even during the listener’s first time hearing her or this song. That alone is commendable enough, and that’s without mentioning the encouragement and motivation to improve that’s contained in the best part of the lyrics.
In Gina’s own words, “Here’s To You is a song written out of exhaustion. A lot of times, my songwriting process begins in the car. I remember driving home from a long day of work crying, feeling so defeated from the mental battlefield that is OCD/anxiety. I started singing the words “I’m tired of convincing myself I’m not tired”, which is the lyric in the song that speaks to me the most. It wasn’t until I sat down at the studio with my producer, Rob Freeman of Hidden In Plain View, that we finished writing Here’s To You. It took us about 2 full days of writing, 3 AM texts of lyrics born from sudden late night bursts of inspiration, and a lot of reflection. We are so proud of this song and its message.”
“For me, Here’s To You came from a place of dropping the facade and really owning up to the concept: “it’s okay not to be okay”. Sometimes, we feel like we need to force a smile and pretend everything is fine. The oldest trick in the book. However, there is power in being vulnerable and admitting you’re exhausted by the battle within yourself.”
According to the artist, Here’s To You is meant for “anyone and everyone”. Every person goes through their own struggles and even the same situation can be experienced differently depending on the individual, so there is no use in trying to compare struggles or compete on whose suffered the most. With her song, Gina Royale instead aims to make others find a safe haven in her music where people can slowly heal and feel peace within a supporting community.
If you enjoyed Gine Royale’s music and would like to stay updated, be sure to check out her official website. For social media you can follow her Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts. To listen to her music, you can head over to her Spotify profile and Youtube channel
You can also support the artist by streaming and sharing her music, which can be found in the following Playlists: Fresh Singles, Female Rising Stars, and Chill – Folk – Acoustic.
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This coverage was created via Musosoup #Sustainablecurator