Pretty Girl

“Pretty Girl” is American singer-songwriter Clairo’s (real name Claire Cottril) first song to go viral. Uploaded to YouTube in August 2017, “Pretty Girl” was written and produced by Clairo, and was the song that led her to be signed with FADER Magazine’s record label: “FADER LABEL”.

“Pretty Girl” is a lo-fi pop track about Clairo feeling the need to dress and act a certain way for a lover, like a “pretty girl”. In a video interview with FADER on YouTube, Clairo explained the meaning behind “Pretty Girl”: ‘

“The song is originally about a relationship I had and I felt like I needed to be a “pretty girl” for someone. So, I felt like I needed to change a lot about who… I actually was. I was just writing a song about how messed up that is, and how that shouldn’t be a thing in relationships, and about how you should always be confident in who you are to begin with.”

The video for “Pretty Girl” was created and directed by Clairo, and uploaded to her YouTube channel on the 4th August 2017. In the description of the video, Clairo had this to say about the video: “ the reason I made this music video was to actually help myself. on the day i made this, my hair was greasy, my skin was bad, i had nothing to wear, and i didn’t want to leave bed. i had just woken up in this video and you can definitely tell (lol) i felt really ugly but realized that it’s perfectly okay to feel that way/have those types of days. the song is about a relationship i had where i felt I needed to be the perfect girl for another person.. whether that’s wearing makeup, doing my hair, wearing things they like, or even changing the way i speak/WHEN i speak. so, i felt that the only way i could make this video was to have a lot of fun looking disgusting and not caring at all ! it’s okay to have flaws and it’s okay to embrace them and it’s okay to be silly and stupid. you all might already know this, but i’m happy that i know this now”. The video is fairly simple, featuring Clairo singing to a webcam and dancing, with karaoke style lyrics at the bottom of the screen for the viewer. As of March 2020, the video has 47.3 million views and 1 million likes.

Release Date: 4th August 2017

Songwriter: Clairo

Producer/s: Clairo

Label: FADER LABEL

Music Video Release Date: 4th August 2017

Music Video Director: Clairo

Chart Rankings: “Pretty Girl” did not reach any mainstream charts, but the song does have 108.3 million streams worldwide on Spotify.

The lyrics to “Pretty Girl” can be viewed here: LINK