Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

ENTERTAINMENT

Freya Ridings Makes Return with ‘Weekends’ and Announces Album ‘Blood Orange’

Credit: Josh Shiner

Email: neill@outloudculture.com

Socials: @neillfrazer

British music gem Freya Ridings makes an epic return to prominence with the release of her brand new single “Weekends” – and also announces the 5th May 2023 release of her eagerly anticipated second album Blood Orange. Taking shape as the album’s first single, ‘Weekends’ is a dancefloor-ready, string- laden singalong with a touch of Nile Rodgers-style glitterball disco energy to it. But Freya’s soaring, velveteen vocal doesn’t hold back when exposing the loneliness that engulfed her early in 2020 as she sings, “I don’t really have friends, I don’t go out at weekends, I don’t have a lover left to hold.”

It’s a song which came from one very specific moment in Freya’s life. As she recalls, “There was a breakup when I got given my first platinum disc for ‘Lost Without You’. I had no one to call and I was sat alone in a bar in King’s Cross. I’d chosen to put the energy into my career, and you miss so many birthdays, people just stop inviting you because they don’t think you’re around. It looks as though I had thousands of people around me, but actually I was the most alone I’ve ever been. So that song felt like me being scarily honest with myself, which was hard.”

The process of writing ‘Blood Orange’ was one of uncertainty. Plans to begin with sessions in Los Angeles were jettisoned by lockdown, those challenging circumstances made all the worse by going through a break-up at the same time. So whereas her previous accomplishments and a fresh new adventure in LA should’ve put Freya on a high, instead she was broken-hearted and back in her childhood bedroom.

With little else to do, Freya dug into the deeper recesses of her emotions to write a soul-baring set of new songs – many of which became instant fan favourites when they were debuted during low-key live-streamed performances from the living room of her parents’ home. Eventually lockdowns and break-ups were reduced to unwelcome memories, and the rekindling of an old flame provided the final spark to provide ‘Blood Orange’ with an uplifting antidote to contrast the sadness that first inspired it.
Freya says, “It’s an album of two halves, 18 months of me being really heartbroken and alone and then 18 months of being the happiest I’ve ever been. So it’s those two halves, the bitter and the sweet, and the transition from one to the other, and allowing yourself to go through that.”

The lightning-in-a-bottle emergence of Freya Ridings with ‘Lost Without You’ and her
self-titled debut album made her one of the surprise international success stories of recent years. The single made Freya the first female artist to have an entirely self-written Top 10 hit since Kate Bush’s original release of ‘Running Up That Hill’ in 1985, and in the process set-up her debut album for immense global success: a #3 UK chart position, a billion+ streams, and a phenomenal 47 Platinum and Gold certifications from all around the world. Starting 2023 on top form, stay tuned for everything Freya has planned for the year as she slowly peels back the layers of Blood Orange.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

Music

On the heels of the explosive release of their highly anticipated collaborative album WE DON’T TRUST YOU, Future and Metro Boomin share the official music video for “Young Metro”...

The Review

In Origin, Ava DuVernay delves into the complex web of caste, race, and identity. Inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s groundbreaking book, the film takes us on...

ENTERTAINMENT

Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, and more have joined Theo James in the upcoming Stephen King Horror movie The Monkey. Along with this trio, the film also stars Christian...

TV

Them: The Scare trailer has been released, showing viewers the upcoming Prime Video horror anthology series. It’ll debut on Prime Video Thursday, April 25. “The...

Movies

We give you the first trailer for Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfrosted. This new film which will debut on Netflix, tells the story about the creation of...

ENTERTAINMENT

Apple TV+ has officially given the greenlight to an limited series adaptation of Araminta Hall’s Imperfect Women novel, with Elisabeth Moss and Kerry Washington set to lead the...

ENTERTAINMENT

Amazon MGM Studios has confirmed the official cast for Paul Feig‘s upcoming A Simple Favor 2, with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively returning. Joining them in...

Movies

Kathryn Newton is taking viewers behind the scenes of the new Universal Pictures horror film Abigail, which hits theaters on April 19. Loosely based on Dracula’s...

Advertisement

Copyright © 2023 Outloud! Culture

Discover more from OutLoud! Culture

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading