Ha Vay has shared a new single with the release of the pulsating pop anthem “I Wanna Cut My Hair,” the third entry to be unveiled this year by the glitzy art-pop project of Maddy Toy. Created last year after living in Paris for two years and then spending another two traveling the world alone, Ha Vay is where Toy has honed her songwriting. Continuously inspired by her eclectic musical upbringing, one owed to her dad’s 90s rock cover bands for which he played bass and her own infatuation with everyone from Madonna and Blondie to Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga, Ha Vay’s new single is a knockabout headbanger of pop-hooks.
Written in about five minutes while in the shower, “I Wanna Cut My Hair” touches on Toy’s feelings of solitude during the pandemic and the guilt she felt modeling during that time because of the realization that she’s profited off traditional or marketable ideas of beauty or femininity. Between the song’s lush, twinkling soundscape and its kinetic percussiveness Ha Vay wails with all her pent-up angst — her exasperation over the conjured ideals of beauty whisked away by the track’s breathless energy.
“I’ve felt trapped by this — I want to feel truly seen and appreciated for something beyond the way I look, but looking ‘feminine’ or ‘pretty’ has proven lucrative for me,” Toy said of the feelings that inspired the single. “Beautiful, long hair has long been a hallmark of feminine beauty, a burden many women labor over, and through this song I’ve hoped to release myself from this symbolic burden (and hopefully others, too!). I’ve received some photos and videos of women who cut their hair when they heard the song, and I’m over the moon about it.”
Listen to Ha Vay’s new single “I Wanna Cut My Hair” below!
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