When you look at the music industry today, what do you see? This new generation of female musicians screams diversity and has been creating art that is more open and brutally honest than ever before. The topics are raw and don’t hold back which is exactly what the young generations need. We all struggle with our own mental weight, we are all going through something and each one of us has a unique story. Music is what unites us and helps us find common ground through lyrics we find similar truths in. An artist whose music screams relatability is Cat Burns. And while she is an incredible songwriter and great vocalist, she also proudly represents diversity, being a black and openly queer young woman in British pop music.
The Brit School alumni went from busking on the streets of London to becoming a platinum-selling singer/songwriter. In fact, she is one of the first British TikTok musicians that was signed by a record label and was the biggest-selling British female artist of 2022. And she is just getting started. When her song “go” went viral on TikTok she didn’t just score millions of streams and followers. She touched hearts around the world and made a lot of struggling young people feel less alone, who were going through similar things she was writing about. Putting your own experience into music can be scary, because you never know what’s gonna happen once you put it out into the world for everyone to hear, and possibly judge. But that hasn’t stopped Cat from being the transparent artist she is with all the phenomenal music she creates.
Some of us have started watching her on TikTok during the pandemic and have followed her journey and growth ever since. Fans describe her as a blessing to humanity, a fantastically talented artist and someone who has helped them show their own true colors. Her music has been a form of therapy and it has clearly done its magic. When you listen to songs like people pleaser or free, there is no way you can’t relate to a certain extent. An unreleased track fans are praising right now is live more and love more – coming out March 31 (go and pre-save it now) – described as the song that motivates them to maximum manifestation. How powerful is that? Her sound and lyrical honesty have given her an important place in music and will continue to help her blossom even further in the best possible way.
Cat is a young artist with such raw talent who was able to break into the mainstream. She has such a beautiful tone to her voice and, the way she writes music for anyone who never had the courage to speak up, is remarkable. By just being who she is, she became that one musician people desperately needed, someone they can relate to. Even though the music industry is filled with all kinds of incredible artists, for some of us, Cat Burns has done more than anyone before her ever could. And that truly speaks for itself.
If you are guilty of being a people pleaser, emotionally unavailable or mentally unstable, this kind of music is exactly right for you. We are all trying to find comfort in music and our own truth between the lines and we need more artists to be as open and blunt as Cat is. There is already so much pressure put on us by society, so having songs to press play and hold on to is crucial. No one can tell us who we are supposed to be, but music can help us find the path to feeling less alone, understood and finally free.
ROARA Magazine 