Phoebe Bridgers discusses her “fucked up” Christmas song covers
Phoebe Bridgers has opened up on her annual Christmas covers and claims that she has always admired the more “fucked up” festive musical offerings. It was only this month that the singer released a cover of ‘So Much Wine’ originally by The Handsome Family.
The proceeds of the single release will be donated to the LGBT Centre in Los Angeles, one of very few federally qualified centres of its kind in the city. The health centre specialises in providing substance abuse aid for those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
‘So Much Wine’ is Bridgers’ sixth annual Christmas cover. She previously took on ‘If We Make It Through December’ by Merle Haggard and ‘Day After Tomorrow’ by Tom Waits in the previous two years. Back in 2019, she collaborated with Fiona Apple and The National’s Matt Berninger to play the Simon & Garfunkel track ‘7 O’Clock News/Silent Night’, while the year before, she performed McCarthy Trenching’s ‘Christmas Song’ with Jackson Browne. Bridgers had opened her annual tradition with a solo take on ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’.
“I like fucked up holiday songs,” Bridgers recently said. “I always have. I remember being so inspired when I went to Nashville and saw where Elvis had done his Christmas album and because he’s a crazy person, he had to make it feel like Christmas in July. It’s also a cool thing to do for charity every year, and it’s fun. I like tradition. Oh god, Fucked Up Holiday Songs. I just found the title of my next composition!”
Bridgers had made the comments after she made her first performance as Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas Concert alongside Danny Elfman. The show took place at the OVO Arena Wembley in London and saw Elfman reprise his role as Jack Skellington from Tim Burton and Henry Sellick’s original film.
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