Open Up Your Eyes Lyrics
Molly lost her sight when she was fourteen
Blinded by disease, she was afraid of the dark
She was tortured through the years with non-stop bullying
She just kept getting stronger with each hateful remark
[Chorus 1]
‘Cause she can see the light shine in the night
And she can see the beauty that’s inside
If you would ask her right this moment if she’d ever change a thing
She would smile and just say, "There's a reason for everything"
[Refrain: Gabbie Hanna & Alina Smith]
Hm-mm-mm-mm
Open (opеn) up your eyes (Your eyеs)
Open, open up your eyes (Hmm)
[Verse 2]
Ellen lost her son at only seventeen
The drugs just couldn't numb him from the pain anymore
It’s the saddest sight his family had ever seen
Their hearts fell to their stomachs when they found him on the floor
[Chorus 2]
He couldn’t see the light shine in the night
He couldn’t see it’d all turn out alright
If he had stopped back for a moment and seen how much he was loved
He would never lay his finger on the trigger of that gun
Hm-mm-mm-mm
Open (open) up your eyes (Your eyes)
Open, open up your eyes (Hmm)
[Verse 3]
Taylor lost her mom when she was twenty-four
They didn’t catch the cancer 'til too little too late
She had never felt an emptiness like this before
She didn’t think she’d ever be relieved of the weight
[Chorus 3]
But now she sees, what family really means
And she still sees, her mother in her dreams
If you could ask her in a moment what the lesson she learned was
She’d say, "Never waste a moment with the people that you love"
[Refrain: Gabbie Hanna & Alina Smith]
Hm-mm-mm-mm
Open (open) up your eyes (Your eyes)
Open, open up your eyes (Hmm)
[Verse 4]
Contemplated death more times than you would think
I’m thankful every day I was afraid of the knife
I was left alone with me; it pushed me to the brink
Until somebody showed me just how special is a life
I couldn’t see what really mattered then
And now I see the value of a friend
If you’d have asked me in those moments if I could escape that Hell
I would never have imagined I’d be doin’ quite this well
[Bridge: Gabbie Hanna & Alina Smith]
Hm-mm-mm-mm
Open (open) up your eyes (Your eyes)
Open, open up your eyes (Hmm)
Open (open) up your eyes (Your eyes)
Open, open up your eyes (Hmm)
[Outro: Gabbie Hanna & Alina Smith]
Open (open) up your eyes
Open, open up your eyes (Hmm)
Open (open) up your eyes (Your eyes)
Open, open up your eyes
About
Gabbie Hanna’s “Open Up Your Eyes” (Originally titled “The Light is Here”) explores the dreadful feelings of endeavoring the meaning of blindness, comprehending the burden of loss, and learning from those experiences. This storytelling piece is an homage to Crash Test Dummies‘ October 1993 release, “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm.”
“Open Up Your Eyes'” lyrics were published in the Target Edition of Gabbie’s second poetry book, Dandelion, and soon brought up again on December 12, 2020, in Gabbie’s 2020 Vlogmas, where she filmed a studio session with LYRE and prone to a title change.
Initially, this song was meant to be an outro for the original 2018 version of This Time Next Year, but due to many changes to the album over the years from 2018, the song was soon replaced multiple times and kept on the back burner. On November 2, 2022, Gabbie teased a snippet of “Open Up Your Eyes',” the first verse in a TikTok.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
This song is talking about the lowest of the low; losing someone to cancer, somebody close to you killing themselves, seeing the bright side, or waiting to see the light through the darkness and I just feel like it’s important.
[…]
This song was actually inspired by [Molly Burke,] it was the first time we met, she sees light and
dark. She can’t see anything, but she can see light, and I just thought that was so fucking beautiful. She went through it, she lost her sight when she was thirteen fucking years old and was bullied.
—via YouTube
