“When the girls don’t need your love / Who says boys don’t cry?“
The beloved Brazilian baddie – our Girl From Rio, the Meiga e Abusada Marvel – is back at it yet again (RT for Brazil!) in 2022, forging ahead in her ongoing quest for multilingual global domination.
And, as of Friday (January 28), she’s in Main Pop Girl mode with an (all too brief) English-language, guitar-led, rock-tinged dance-pop banger. That’s right: she’s a rock chick now, just like Avril. Is there a genre Anitta can’t tackle?
She’s truly not fooling around this time: the song is stuffed with some of the most major players in pop, including the legendary Max Martin collaborator Rami Yacoub (perhaps you’ve heard his song “…Baby One More Time” somewhere), Rihanna hit-making singer-songwriter Bibi Bourelly, BURNS (who did Britney‘s “Make Me…” and much of Lady Gaga‘s Chromatica) and Sean Douglas, of Demi Lovato‘s “Heart Attack” fame.
Who needs a man? Not Anitta, that’s for damn sure.
The ode to independent living and no-strings-attached fun comes in as short and sweet as a ringtone at a tight 2:15 minutes (do something about this already, Joe Biden!), as Anitta gets her kicks real quick and makes a run for it before the dudes start, inevitably, catching feelings.
While Anitta previously said the song was inspired by Panic! At The Disco (amazing), the slick track also slides in well between the more top-tier pop servings of the moment: Charli XCX‘s “Good Ones,” The Weeknd‘s ’80s sheen, some of Miley‘s Plastic Hearts rock energy, plus a touch of Bonnie McKee brand of power pop, armed with an earworm of a chorus that sticks right from the very first play. Ooh baby, baby, you be talkin’ tough! (I especially love the second verse: “You start telling me I’m the one…I’m not.“)
To further illustrate her point, the Christian Breslauer co-directed music video finds our favorite “Paradinha” princess looking extremely hot (duh), getting stalked by a lifeless man or ten (relatable!), ditching boys at the altar, and making her great escape in high fashion – all while hitting a club or two in the process.
While I don’t know exactly what is happening, I like to think she got on the same bus as Ali Rose in Burlesque in the end, and now the two are on the way to become big stars in Los Angeles.
And while yes, it’s a too-short tease of a track that could have absolutely done with a proper bridge and final chorus explosion – curse you once again, streaming/TikTok – “Boys Don’t Cry” is an instant hit, and some of Anitta’s best evidence yet that she’s got what it takes to crack the pop industry stateside.
