being a wallflower: alessia cara's 'here'

Lara Johnson-Wheeler

It’s been all of us at one point or another- being at a party because your friends wanted to go to the party and you didn’t want to be at the party but now you’re at the party and you still don’t want to be at the party. It’s an emotion that’s almost impossible to be unfamiliar with, unless you are of that rarest breed of human that truly gives zero fucks.  

It is for this reason that Alessia Cara’s debut single Here, the unapologetic monologue to all the people surrounding the 18-year old singer-songwriter as she narrates the ‘true story’ of her attitude to partying, has debuted on Fader to over 500,000 plays. The lyrics tug at each introverted bone in one’s body; the opening lines represent with perfect succinctness the sense of self felt at a party if one isn’t behaving as though the sole aim is to raise the roof; ‘Excuse me if I seem a little unimpressed with this /An anti-social pessimist/ But usually I don’t mess with this’.  

Alessia was recently signed to Def Jam, a label she feels has allowed her to truly represent herself vocally and with reverence to her influences. She has said, “Def Jam gave me the opportunity to say something meaningful and positive without being preachy.” For such a powerful young lyricist to command the mature ability of accepting a dislike of social culture and then to actually speak it with that creamy, raspy voice she works with is fresh and well-deserving of the praise critics are bestowing upon her from all angles.