Aquamarine

Album: Addison (2024)
Charted: 45 110
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Songfacts®:

  • "Aquamarine" is a sultry, synth-soaked dance track that glows with a kind of oceanic mystery. Over a classic four-on-the-floor beat, Addison Rae casts herself as a temptress of the deep, inviting her lover to "dive in" and lose themselves in her vibrant, pool-like world.
  • Rae's inspiration? None other than Aquamarine, the 2006 teen fantasy flick about a mermaid finding love on dry land. "I've seen it so many times," she laughed to Harper's Bazaar. "The title just sounds so glamorous, so beautiful."

    Rae saw the movie a week before making "Aquamarine"; doing the song helped her on a journey of "falling in love with the way [she] approaches life."

    To Rae, "Aquamarine" is about "transforming and finding what message you want to tell and what story you want to tell through your life."
  • Rae wrote the song "Aquamarine" with producers Luka Kloser and Elvira Anderfjard, the same pair who collaborated with her on her breakthrough single, "Diet Pepsi."

    "Aquamarine," though, takes her sound to a new realm, with electronic flourishes and an almost retro underwater vibe that's part disco, part daydream.
  • The music video, shot in Paris, sees Sean Price Williams back in the director's chair and Mel Ottenberg as creative director, both reuniting with Rae after their work on "Diet Pepsi." The video opens with Rae at an opulent masquerade where her mysterious allure leaves the other guests perplexed. Sensing she's not understood, she slips away into the Parisian night, dancing through the city streets in sheer sequins and towering heels.

    "It's really about rawness and self-acceptance," Rae explained.
  • To bring her look to life, Rae collaborated with her go-to stylist, Dara, who crafted her character's appearance to stand in stark contrast to the judgmental, buttoned-up crowd at the masquerade.

    "I feel like it was so much about creating a language for the Aqua character that was about being free in that kind of space," Dara shared. "It's sort of like, you're unafraid to make others uncomfortable because you're so comfortable in what you're doing... you take the mask off and you're free."
  • Addison Rae dropped a remix by Barcelona-based DJ Arca on November 15, 2024. The Louisiana singer is a longtime Arca fan, telling Vogue in 2023, "I mean, I would love to work with Arca, obviously!. I just love her sound, and I think she's so cool."
  • The "Aquamarine" title came from notes on Addison Rae's Notes app. "I think titles can be so telling about what a song is going to be," Rae told Billboard.

    At her next writing session with Kloser and Anderfjard, she brought it in as a title with no clear concept, just the question, "How do you write a song called 'Aquamarine'?"

    The answer came from the stone's symbolism of rebirth and transformation, which inspired her to "dive into that world" and let the track take shape from there.

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