Last night at the CMA Awards, Keith Urban debuted his new song “Female,” which he revealed was inspired by Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault scandal and the ripple effects it’s had in Hollywood and beyond. Although he didn’t write the song himself (Shane McAnally, Ross Copperman, and Nicolle Galyon are the co-writers), he did note in an interview with Billboard that the track is meant as an uplifting anthem for women. “I am surrounded by females in my life,” he said. “I grew up in a house with boys, no sisters. Now I am in a house that’s all girls. So this song speaks to me on a lot of levels.”
Unfortunately for Urban, the song doesn’t quite connect. He kicks things off with a confusing reference to Beyoncé’s 2011 hit “Run the World (Girls)”:
When you hear somebody say somebody hits like a girl
How does that hit you?
Is that such a bad thing?
When you hear a song that they play saying you run the world
Do you believe it?
Will you live to see it?
The second verse finds him directly addressing both sexual assault and The Bible:
When somebody laughs and implies that she asked for it
Just cause she was wearing a skirt
Now is that how it works?
When somebody talks about how it was Adam first
Does that make you second best?
Or did he save the best for last?
Things really come to a head on the chorus, where Urban just lists a series of words that are vaguely related to women:
Sister, shoulder
Daughter, lover
Healer, broken halo
Mother nature
Fire, suit of armor
Soul survivor, Holy Water
Secret keeper, fortune teller
Virgin Mary, scarlet letter
Technicolor river wild
Baby girl, women shine
Female
Reactions to the song have been mixed. While some have called it important for country music, others have joked about the song’s simplistic and arguably patronizing lyrics. A few people even drew parallels to Brad Paisley and LL Cool J’s infamous 2013 song “Accidental Racist.” Either way, “Female” has proven to be quite popular on Genius, racking up nearly 20,000 pageviews since its release last night.
He’s not the first artist to release a song about Weinstein. Lana Del Rey recently addressed speculation that her 2012 song “Cola” is actually a reference to the disgraced former Hollywood executive. She denied that the song is specifically about him, although did note that she “had a Harvey Weinstein/Harry Winston-type of character in mind” when she wrote it.
Listen to the song above and read all the lyrics to Keith Urban’s “Female” on Genius now.
