GET TO KNOW: Girli
In GIRLI world: pink is power, crafting your own tour merch is cool and creating queer hits is high on the agenda.
Meet Milly Toomey, best known as GIRLI. The queer, alt-pop artist who has used her platform for just over a decade to build a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community, challenge stereotypes, and call out injustices. As someone who has been vocal in speaking out on important issues from a young age, the 28 year old has built a supportive fanbase who relate to her genre bending tunes that explore many themes. From coming out to queer heartbreak to managing mental health (including her own struggles with OCD) GIRLI is an artist that makes people feel seen.
GIRLI first stepped on to the scene with her 2015 release of So You Think You Can Fuck With Me Do Ya. Blending electro-pop beats and sound snippets from video games with rage filled lyrics, GIRLI’s first single promised she would be an artist that’s outspoken, unapologetic and bold. She’s certainly delivered.
Building up her music catalogue, the London based artist released several more singles. Playing with sound and interpretations of her own works, she collaborated with the likes of ASHNIKKO and DREAM WIFE on remixes of Not That Girl, and LETHAL BIZZLE on Feel OK, to name but just a few.
Fans flocked in numbers as GIRLI continued exploring themes of mental health, sexuality and navigating the teen years. She reasserted her power after a messy breakup on Day Month Second. Gave a voice to the uneasy confusion and pain of growing up on Young, and waged war against societal expectations of women on Hot Mess.
With her sound exploring several different genres, you can’t place GIRLI into a specific music box - and that’s exactly what her debut album, Odd One Out, solidifies.
Just as momentum was building, she was dropped by her record label mere months after her debut album release, and with the pandemic underway, her 2020 tour was subsequently cancelled. Of course, this didn’t slow her down. Much to the fans' delight, she went on to release Has Been that same year, and three EPs between 2021 and 2023. Experimenting with her style and ever-changing, it came as no surprise that GIRLI’s sophomore album Matriarchy showed a new side to what it means to be a queer woman making sense of an unpredictable world.
Matriarchy feels like the open reading of a sapphic journal put to 80s pop, synthy beats. The album art is grandiose and lavish. The work behind it is reflective of this, emotions that demand attention in bold ways. The initially deceptive opening line of Be With Me tricks listeners into thinking GIRLI is confessing true love for another. Actually, she leads fans into a journey of self-love and the importance of being okay with being alone. Tracks like Nothing Hurts Like a Girl and Her Too explore the messiness and complexities that come with sapphic relationships, put to fun and energetic beats. In a world where the rights of women and the LGBTQ+ community are constantly politicised and put up for debate, Matriarchy provides a place, not only where you can escape to, but somewhere that validates experiences of those living outside of society's rigid expectations.
If GIRLI’s previous material was the rebellious teen shouting from the rooftops - carving her own path whilst navigating the complexities of teen life, Matriarchy is the reassuring, warm embrace of a young woman. Reflective, comforting and equally as empowering, GIRLI’s second album dives deeper into queer experiences, navigating adulthood, love, heartbreak and learning to truly love yourself.
Now, back for round three, GIRLI takes this message in an even more unapologetic tone with her album, it's just my opinion, released this May. The title itself is deliberately uncomfortable - if misogynists and homophobes get to ‘just have their opinion’, then why can’t GIRLI?
Edgier and punchier than her previous sound, the rage infused tracks of GIRLI’s latest release is an explosion of emotion. GIRLI has never been an artist who shies away from centering her work around human experiences, no matter how raw or painful. Take Slap On The Wrist. It is not just a song for our generation. It’s an outcry to the relentless ways in which women have been subjected to harassment and violence, whilst many perpetrators walk away with little to no consequences. As an activist, GIRLI’s work is rooted in speaking up and speaking out. Teaming up with Cheer Up Luv, a platform that challenges misogyny and gender discrimination, the music video for Slap On The Wrist was born. The video concept is based on real testimonies of sexual harassment - and is just one of the many ways GIRLI uses her platform to make people feel seen and heard.
Songs like Squirm and Better Undressed keep up the fast paced, unadorned indie-rock style, going through the relationship life cycle of having an intense crush to realising that you can’t be friends with your ex. Feelings that fans can relate with all too well.
This album is a pushback, not just to some of the horrific comments that flood GIRLI’s social media posts, but to the constant silencing and quietening marginalised people face in this world.
GIRLI’s latest project - the opinionated tour, comes at a time where we need community and inclusion now more than ever. She has an all female and non-binary crew, gender neutral toilets and uses the stage to raise awareness for important issues like the ongoing war in Palestine. Her activism is embedded in every part of her creativeness. Welcome to GIRLI’s world - authentic, emotional and fearless.
Words: Mary Horner
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