Being a successful artist can come with love and adoration. Unfortunately, that love and adoration can often lead to questionable intentions. In “Goddess,” Laufey grapples with that idea. The Icelandic jazz-pop star lays everything bare, candidly singing about a relationship gone awry because of a misinterpretation. Uncover the meaning behind this powerful ballad, below.
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The Meaning Behind Laufey’s Candid Ballad, “Goddess”
It always goes like this
Could’ve predicted it
I’m so naive to think you loved me for me
Kissed as I ran off stage
Too old to play this game
Guess you’re still growing up at thirty
In the opening lines, Laufey orients the listener to a familiar scenario. I’m so naive to think you loved me for me, she sings, referencing her fame and its negative effects. The subject of this song was enticed by all the glamour of superstardom. In the chorus, she reveals the catch-22 of that idea.
Were you surprised by me
When you took me home?
When the glamor wore off
Reduced to skin and bone
I can’t even tell
Who you want to know
I’m a goddess on stage
Human when we’re alone
Despite her star steadily rising, Laufey is only human. She says as much in the chorus of “Goddess.” Were you surprised by me / When you took me home? / When the glamor wore off / Reduced to skin and bone, she sings.
You took a star to bed
Woke up with me instead
You must have felt so damn deceived
When you made up a version of
Me that you thought you’d love
But I am not your Aphrodite
In the end, she tells the subject of this song, even though you entered into a relationship with a star, at the end of the day, all of that is washed away.
“‘Goddess’ is my most honest song yet,” Laufey once said of the song. “I wrote it alone at my piano after feeling like someone had fallen in love with the version of me they’d seen on stage, just to find that I wasn’t what they projected once I was off stage. They deemed me to no longer be a shiny thing when the glamor wore off, reduced to skin and bone.”
You took me for a fool
You stole my youth
You wanted this so much
You watched me rise
Then killed my light
And now you know
I’m not your f***ing goddess
(Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
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