Coming off the crossover success of her collabs with high-profile dance music producers Gattüso, Laidback Luke, R3HAB, and Armin Van Buuren, American pop singer Sarah Reeves continues to make impact with the release of her new single “Jealousy.”
The midtempo pop tune has Sarah encounter her younger self, bringing her back to an easier time when she was innocent, confident, and carefree. The rising pop artist admits her envy for that girl — a kid devoid of insecurity and brimming with wonder and curiosity.
"I wrote this song with my friend Paul Duncan, and we were in Los Angeles," Sarah recalled in an exclusive interview with One Music PH. "It was just us and a keyboard. Usually I have some producers in the room and there's a full track, but this time it was just very basic, simple, and stripped back. We just started talking, and I started thinking about myself as a little girl and how I was just so full of life, and remember how I could do anything I set my mind to. I grew up in a very small town in Alabama. We didn't have much and I was kind of in a bubble thinking that I was the best singer, the best athlete, I was the fastest runner, and I legitimately thought that and I was so confident. But as you grow up, you start to experience the real world and just realize that avctually I'm not the best at everything, that there's a lot more people in the world than you thought. And you know, just experiencing some rejection and some hurt, and some insecurities creep in. Sometimes I find myself thinking about that girl that I used to be and I get jealous of the way that I was."
In times of difficulty, Sarah thinks we can go back to our inner child to cope with them. "Really, it's just a matter of thinking about it and taking a moment to remember tthe simple life that I had. And as I've grown up - I'm in my thirties now - it's a lot different. You just evolve as a human. I've traveled the world, met so many people, and I've experienced a lot of rejection and disappointment over the years and that could trigger a lot of emotions, anxiety and different things that I've never been oblivious to when I was so much younger. But that inner child is still in me, and I think it's in all of us, and I think we can go back to that place sometimes and just remember where we came from and who we are."
“Jealousy” is also doing well in other territories outside the US, especially in the Philippines where it is as one of the top 10 countries in Spotify that have heavily streamed her work for the past few months the most.
“I would love to visit the Philippines one day and am so grateful to all my fans there,” says the young pop act. “I’m glad the music is connecting to Filipino fans. I hope it is appealing to them because it’s bringing hope and inspiration to every person that hears the music.”
In addition to her solo pop releases, Sarah Reeves has also spent a big amount of her musical career to songwriting for other artists for TV and film. Her music has appeared in Disney Plus and National Geographic’s six-part original series Welcome to Earth starring Will Smith; Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon's international territories trailer; promos for American Idol and UFC; and on TV series across major networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and Netflix, among others.
The pop artist and songwriter was signed to her first record deal at the tender age of 18. The Curb | Word Entertainment artist has amassed over 81 million career streams and 40 million YouTube views.
As for her mission statement as an artist, Sarah said, "I've evolved over the years. I started around 15 years ago, and I think now I'm coming into more of a mature pop sound, I don't even know if that's a thing. I like to talk about real things, and writer and sing about personal, vulnerable, and even hard things, 'cause I think a lot of people can relate to them. A lot of my songs are just about things that I've gone through personally, different things that other people can relate to, and I want people to feel something, that's what I always say. No matter where I'm singing, if it's in a club or in a church or if it's on Instagram, I want someone to walk away feeling like they were seen, and feeling like they're not alone. I want them to walk away feeling inspired. I don't know if that answers your questions (giggles)."