Sad girl hours

POV: You’re sad and single.

Story by Brendan Le Design by Annie Xia

I’ll be the first to admit I sobbed to Conan Gray’s “Lookalike” in high school after my boyfriend broke up with me. After all, almost every coming-of-age story involves a life-altering heartbreak that sets you up for a major glow-up.

You just need to find music to cry it out first. Indonesian pop star NIKI and Vietnamese American R&B singer thuy are among the musicians that have all the emotional bases covered, from longing to loathing to moving on.

album Nicole

NIKI rose to fame through her (nowdeleted) YouTube covers. In 2017, she became the first woman signed to the Asian and Asian American-centered label 88rising. Her agile vocals and confessional songwriting had fans hooked since her official label debut single, “See U Never.”

Zephyr in 2018, NIKI launched onto the scene with glitzy R&B tracks like “Vintage,” a sleek cut about running into your ex after time apart. Her 2019 follow-up EP wanna take this downtown? presents more muted, lullabyesque beats with feathery vocals. On “urs,” she encapsulates the frustration and confusion of a situationship: “The best at being the worst / But fuck’s sake, I’m already yours.”

Nicole sees NIKI revisiting songs she penned in her adolescence about a teen romance split by distance and growing up. The opener “Before” starts at the end of the story, on an uneasy visit to her high school sweetheart’s American college. The album’s crown jewel is “Oceans & Engines” a nearly six-minute ballad of guitar and percussion that swells and crashes, bringing NIKI to terms with the end of her relationship.

“I’m letting go,” she quavers in the final chorus. “This is the last falsetto / I’ll ever sing to you, my great, lost love.”

After thuy’s song “Hands On Me” won a local radio contest and propelled her into Bay Area stardom, she decided to leave her medical career prospects behind to pursue music full-time in Los Angeles. She has since amassed 2.5 million monthly Spotify listeners and headlined two U.S. tours. Along the way, thuy even made a pit stop at NU for Celebrasia 2023.

In a 2022 Luna Collective interview, thuy says she’s grateful for her late, postcollege entry into the industry because she’s “experienced so much life, so much heartbreak, so much change” to imbue into her music. Her wisdom shows in her 2021 debut EP i hope u see this, which details the stages of a toxic relationship.

On the two opening tracks, “trippin” and “chances,” thuy lectures a dishonest lover and refuses to forgive him again. She flips between reconciling and rejecting him until “universe,” a spacey declaration of love for a new, more deserving person. It’s no wonder it’s her most-streamed song, especially in the context of the EP.

“You still give me butterflies / My lullaby, you are,” she sings, “everything I wanted.”

Even after heartbreak crumbles worlds, there’s still hope for greater universes.