The Most Ridiculous Interpretation of Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend”
It’s been a dance-y few weeks, which naturally reignited my love for Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend.”
I was first introduced to this song by my friend Cler. Last year on a whim, we spent two amazing weeks in Paris together. Wandering the narrow streets of the city in beautiful summer dresses, eating with eyes bigger than our stomachs, feeling fancy in our studio flat on Ile Saint Louis, watching the sunrise on several occasions, befriending English-speaking Brits and Frenchies, going to Versailles on 3-hours of sleep, going to the tabac and asking for “lady cigarettes,” gagging on our own cigarette smoke while dining al fresco in Montmarte, making “eyes” with French men, dancing our hearts out and laying out on any lawn we could find with shades on and baguettes and cheese in hand. You know, the things that bond people for life.
So when she returned to New York in December on winter break from her PhD program at UCLA, we decided to have a “Paris in New York” day. It was filled with macarons, coffees and teas, long walks, vintage dress shopping and delicious sardines and rillettes at Buvette. It had just enough resemblance to bring back our Parisian giddiness.
Of discussion over tea on the Upper East Side was my revived love for Beyonce. I told her how I had gone through Beyonce’s YouTube channel one night and not only had a sweat-inducing solo dance party but also learned some serious life lessons about loving yourself. I began quoting lyrics and highlighting the key messages of a number of her songs. Cler stopped me while I was loading Beyonce’s “If I Were a Boy” video on my iPhone, unimpressed by my delayed revelation. “Look Cil, you don’t need to tell me about Beyonce. I was her from the ‘Countdown’ video for Halloween this year. She’s awesome. I know. But have you listened to Robyn? Her songs speak to me too.”
I admitted I was behind on music. Cler humbly suggested that I watch Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” video. “Robyn is completely right. If someone did what she says in her song to me, I’d completely understand. I’d respect that person. I wish we could be that honest with each other. I want to tell all my friends to watch that video. You need to watch it. I think we can really learn something from it.”
I went home that night, loaded the video on YouTube and was completely miffed by the song’s end. I was confused as to why she had specifically encouraged me to watch this. When I saw Cler a few days later, I asked her about it. “I don’t understand why you wanted me to watch that. It’s mean and kind of un-feministic. Whatever happened to chicks before dicks?”
Now Cler looked perplexed. “What? I mean, everyone should watch it. I was just trying to say, if a guy I was dating told me he was breaking it off because he found someone else, then I could respect that. I’m just tired of hearing bullshit excuses. Aren’t you?”
“Whoa. So, Robyn’s telling a guy to call his girlfriend? I thought she was telling us ladies to call our girlfriends, you know, like you-and-me kind of girlfriends. Call your girlfriends when you found a boyfriend and tell them that you won’t have time for them anymore because you’re so happy with your boyfriend and engrossed in your relationship. And that they’ll understand this when they find their own boyfriends and become equally engrossed. I thought it was a song about bailing on your friends once you found love.”
Cler laughed, “I can’t believe that’s what you got from the song.” I admitted that I had lost track of the lyrics around when Robyn exposed her powder white midriff. At that point, I was trying to determine whether that stark white color was a leotard or skin. And then, I saw she was wearing Frankenstein-ish/orthopedic shoes. And then, there was the strobe light. And then, I was trying to figure out if she was free styling or if the dance was choreographed. And then, I was too busy rewinding the video to try to learn the moves for myself. And I mean, how can one concentrate when her dance moves are so mesmerizing?!
When I listen to the song now, I always smile because I can still hear traces of my original interpretation in some of her words.
