Today, the British pop queens Charli XCX and Rina Sawayama released a new track, Beg For You, sampling Swedish Petra Marklund's 2007 dance-hit Cry For You. This marks the return of great, unbridled joy in pop music
Today, Charli XCX’s collaboration with Rina Sawayama is taking over the New Music Friday playlists of the world. Beg For You is a fast-paced, classic pop record with a familiar chorus.
In fact, the duo has sampled the chorus of Sweden’s pop sweetheart September's, who now performs under her birth-name Petra Marklund, smash-hit Cry For You from the golden year that was 2007.
Cry For You came at a time when melody was king in pop music, where every single note was as sweet and addictive as candy. After listing to 15 seconds of Cry For You, it will be burned into your brain’s melodic memory for the rest of time. It’s catchy, fast, and first and foremost, danceable.
This is unbridled Scandinavian melancholic-ecstasy, aka the genre of pop music where we are the absolute best in the game. It is safe to say we have all screamed “you’ll never see me again” at the top of our lungs at some point on a sweaty dance floor since it was released 15 years ago.
As we return to an era in music where the feeling of joy is finally returning, sampling from a time where music was unashamedly and undoubtedly about making the listener feel good, XCX and Sawayama’s decision to use this specific chorus is a stroke of genius.
This is the first in what is sure to become a new wave of Euro-inspired pop music across the globe. It also signals a yearning for uncontainable joy and, first and foremost, good music.
Listen to both Charli XCX, Rina Sawayama and Petra Marklund on Spotify: