Lesbian chart-topper Gigi Perez says queer anthem Sailor Song changed her life
Lesbian chart-topper Gigi Perez says queer anthem ‘Sailor Song’ ‘changed my life’ (Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)
Lesbian viral sensation Gigi Perez has admitted that her queer anthem “Sailor Song” changed her life, adding that it had really “resonated” with her young LGBTQ+ audience.
“Sailor Song” initially went viral on TikTok, before going to number one in the UK singles charts last year. It has since got to the top 25 in the US, and racked up half a billion Spotify streams.
Speaking to ABC Audio about the wildly successful track, with lyrics speaking to sapphic love – “I sleep so I can see you ‘cause I hate to wait so long” – Perez explained that the song had meant a lot to her audience.
“To see the places that people have resonated with it, especially in the younger LGBT community, and what that kind of desperate love means to people universally, I mean, it’s changed my life,” she said.
Gigi Perez added in the interview that part of the song’s success is owed to her younger sister, who approved of “Sailor Song” early on.
“She stops by when there’s something good,” she said, explaining that she had been playing the song with the door open. “She was like, ‘Gigi, that’s sick.’ I remember months before I posted it, she’d just be singing it and singing it.”
She joked that she was also indebted to the “ethereal beauty” of Anne Hathaway, who she references in the opening lyric of “Sailor Song”: “I saw her in the rightest way, looking like Anne Hathaway”.
“I mean, I grew up watching Anne Hathaway movies and, you know, I turned out to be gay,” she said.
Who is Gigi Perez?
Gigi Perez initially started out as a TikTok star, with the 24-year-old signed to Interscope in 2021 after her song “Sometimes (Backwood)” went viral.
Despite her rise to fame and dedicated LGBTQ+ fanbase, however, some of her lyrics have sparked criticism among Christian influencers.
In the chorus of “Sailor Song”, Perez sings: “I don’t believe in God, but I believe that you’re my saviour. My mom says that she’s worried, but I’m covered in this favour, and when we’re getting dirty, I forget all that is wrong.”
The song’s lyric whipped up a storm with some right-wing Christians, who demanded Perez change the words, however the singer stood her ground, explaining that her lyrics were “never up for discussion”.
“I’m not changing the lyrics to ‘Sailor Song’. The piece is written the way that it is for a reason, and I put it in there exactly as it was meant to be written,” she said.
“I’m really happy that it’s connected with so many people, and honestly, it’s up to you. It’s up to you what it means to you. I wrote it for what it means to me.”
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