London-born songstress GIRLI has today released her brand new single, More Than A Friend. The heart-wrenchingly honest track showcases GIRLI’s signature richly-hued soaring vocals, and culminates in an anthemic chorus. Listen here. The official music video co-directed by GIRLI herself,will premiere later today on YouTube at 6pm BST, here.
GIRLI has said of the track, “I wrote this song about crushing hard on a girl who didn’t want me back. It’s about the sexual frustration of wanting someone so bad but knowing they just don’t like you like that. Falling for your friend can happen to anyone, but I think it’s a feeling that is particularly poignant to queer people; falling for a friend who perhaps isn’t the same sexual orientation as you and not being able to express those feelings for fear of being judged or losing that friendship. It’s sticky.”
Earlier this year saw GIRLI release her Ex TalkEP, which has racked up a whopping 1.3+ million combined audio streams, and 300k+ combined video streams. This 5-track body of work is the follow up to GIRLI’s highly regarded debut, Odd One Out. The 9-track album which was released in 2019, garnered support from tastemakers such as the Guardian, Clash, DIY and more.
Milly Toomey (aka GIRLI)has been cutting her teeth on the live circuit over the last few years, and has played shows with the likes of Ashnikko and Declan McKenna, and festivals such as Latitude, All Points East and Truck. The singer-songwriter has recently announced that she will be playing the historic Bush Hall in London on 9th July, to celebrate 20 years of the venue. GIRLI will also be joining Architects, Machine Gun Kelly and lots more at London’s first alternative hip hop and rock festival, Alt London at Clapham Common on 30th August.
GIRLI’s passions go further than music; she speaks avidly and openly about topics such as feminism, sexuality and mental health. Last November saw the alt-pop artist launch her own podcast, ‘GIRLI IRL’, where LGBTQ+ artists join her to discuss all of the above and much more. Listen to all episodes here. GIRLI has also recently started sharing #HERstory teaching videos on TikTok, where she has just surpassed 1 million likes. Treating her avid fans to a very special and unique experience, GIRLI gave them the opportunity to submit fanart and feature in her digital exhibition which ran online last week. The pop powerhouse also shared an exclusive live show which was filmed from an empty London venue, where she performed Ex Talk in full.
Credit: Haris Nukem