The ’80’s called and they want their song back. With her latest single, “Paradise Calling,” Birdy delivered a haunting song about believing in the magic of love. Since releasing her first studio album in 2013, the English musician has continued to grow and refine her sound, going from the acoustic nature of her earlier days to the alternative pop sound we hear in her newer work.
“Riding high / When I was your star, mmm / Lightning strikes / Right at the heart, mmm,” Birdy sings in the opening verse, her ethereal voice doing its best to pass on the message of a love that could be if given a chance to blossom. In the chorus, she sings about wanting to believe in their love, even if “both eyes [are] wide open.”
She sings in the second verse, “Light us up / Open the door, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh / We could find a way out the dark / This could be the spark.” And since her lover doesn’t “know the ways of the heart,” she promises it’s okay to start anywhere.
“Paradise Calling” was released on July 12 as one of the promotional singles from her upcoming fifth studio album, Portraits, which will mark her first full-length project since 2021’s Young Hearts. Birdy wrote the single with Anya Jones and King Ed, who also served as producers on the track.
To promote the song, Birdy performed the single live on BBC Radio 2 for the first time and teased it across her social media channels prior to the release, where fans were quickly gushing about the 80’s feel of the song and enjoying its upbeat message.
A press release revealed that Portraits will see “Birdy take a liberated leap into the unknown, her timeless songwriting style now infused with a fresh, exuberant rush of energy and inventive, off-kilter production flourishes. It’s the sound of a creative stepping into a new world and thrillingly, finding her true voice.” The album is said to be different from her other works so far. Portraits boasts of 11 tracks, including lead single “Raincatcher” and “Heartbreaker.”
Birdy started making covers after she won the music competition Open Mic UK in 2008 at the tender age of 12, before moving on to releasing original music and working on movie and TV show soundtracks.
So far, she has contributed her talents to projects such as The Hunger Games (2012), Brave (2012), The Fault in Our Stars (2014), Beyond the Lights (2014), and The Edge of Seventeen (2016).
