A vital refusal of apathy: The importance of Paris Paloma’s voice right now
People tend to get cynical over a protest song. It’s an issue, given that at this current moment, we need them more than ever.
While we can argue till we’re blue in the face about their power or potential for actual change, it doesn’t alter the fact that now, more than ever, people on any platform need to speak up – and Paris Paloma is more than willing to scream.
Paloma first boomed to notoriety off the back of her track ‘Labour’. Arguably, out of all of the many protest songs released in the last decade, hers is the one that has stuck and seems certain to stick. It’s the bridge that provides the punch as worldwide now, Paloma is joined by crowds who chant with her, “All day, every day, therapist, mother, maid / Nymph, then a virgin, nurse, then a servant / Just an appendage, live to attend him / So that he never lifts a finger.”
The song seems sure to stick because it only becomes more prescient each year. After Roe Vs Wade was overturned, the ongoing and vital protests to protect women’s healthcare found a theme tune in Paloma’s track. As the re-election of Trump brought in a new dawn of fear over women’s safety and rights, the voices got louder. More recently, with the revelations of the Epstein files and the near-constant outing of more and more abusers in power, the rage of ‘Labour’ only ever gets sharper.
In 2024, right when people might start getting cynical about a trending song a year old, or when an artist might want to move on from their breakthrough hit, Paloma saw the need to double down in an impactful way. She released ‘Labour (The Cacophony)’, honouring the community that has adopted the song as a rallying cry and adding their voices to the track, turning it into a song for a worldwide choir.
But in the years since, Paloma has proved she’s not a one-hit wonder. She proved that across her debut, The Hunter, as the record is dynamic beyond rallying cries, with beautiful folkish ballads on all kinds of topics. But also, Paloma hasn’t shied away from keeping her focus on the world around her. Even though the worry might have been there as the cynics always grow loud around artists who use their art to address matters of social injustice, Paloma hasn’t been deterred from her path; she’s only grown smarter, more specific, and more vital.
In the three singles Paloma has released in what seems to be a new era, she’s taken aim at three of the most important conversations around at the moment, and tackled each with incredible nuance in a pop package.
On ‘Good Boy’, the manosphere comes under fire with exactly the kind of mocking pity it deserves. “Has any of the money trickled down yet?” she sings to men like HSTikkyTokky or the crowd on Louis Theroux’s recent documentary, who seem absolutely certain that the misogynistic, hyper-masculine grindset will make them money, and that money will be worth all the loneliness and self-hatred. Treating them like the kind of pathetic dogs they are, the chorus is a catchy one-two punch, but the verses manage to imbue basically Theroux’s entire doc into a new tune.
On ‘Good Girl’, she flips to the other side, speaking to the women. In a world of ever-slimming celebrities and the rise of Ozempic, we’ve all forgotten our old promises to the body positivity movement or all the world that was done for inclusion. It would be easier for Paloma to write an outright ballad about the need to love yourself, but instead, she did something more important, which was to be honest. “You can scream at me all you want that the greatest love affair is with myself / That it should be passionate, unwavering / No shadow of a doubt that I am in love with my body, and my body is in love with me / But I am not,” she says in the opening poem, making millions feel less alone in an instant. It’s a vital reminder that perhaps the best thing an artist on a platform can do is not preach from above, but just lay it all on the ground.
Yet on her latest offering, ‘Miyazaki’, Paloma also recognises that sometimes there is a need to be heard, and when it comes to AI, artists especially need to get on their soapboxes. At a time when you have people like Matthew McConaughey being lukewarm about AI, Paloma screams, “I won’t let you take it from me,” singing as a rallying cry for this intensifying issue – “I’m not a violent person, but I make things with aggression / I’m not a violent person but my work is one exception.”
Dedicating an entire song about the need to fight against the rise of AI, Paloma is the first musician I’ve seen put the topic into song, and double down hard by making it clear that every inch of her project, from the music itself to the stunning music video to accompany it, is made by human hands, and only ever will be.
Three songs, three vital topics, all handled with bite, intelligence and a talent for putting them into song that aligns her with the true greats of the protest music world. Paloma earned her place in their ranks with ‘Labour’ as it continues to be sung on marches month after month. But as her devotion stays fierce, even as her gaze broadens, the artist’s voice feels essential right now as a person who won’t be deterred by apathy or cynicism.
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