The name Holiday Sidewinder is just about the coolest name a pop star could possibly have. I mean, that sounds like the name of someone I’d be willing to go on an adventure with. And with her new music, it almost feels like you can.
Holiday Sidewinder is also a name that should, if it isn’t already, be a household name for every young (and old) feminist in the game. Her style, as best as I can describe it, is “party bops with an empowering edge”. Her single ‘Leo’ is one of the most powerful bangers about women’s sexual liberation and freedom I’ve ever heard, and songs like Whispers and Tra$h Can Luv fill you with a feeling that makes you and the inner workings of your head feel seen.
Her newest single, Baby Oil, is no different, teaching us that “even something as seemingly harmless and pure as Baby-Oil is made up of petrochemicals, a metaphor for this intoxicating but oh-so toxic love”. Self-described by Sidewinder as “a sexy AF parting gift to her ex”, the song fights back against gas lighting and toxicity in past relationships, but in a way that guarantees the song will earworm its way into your brain for weeks. (I was lucky enough to attend a filming Sidewinder recorded for the UK reality show Made in Chelsea, and let me tell you, I was chanting “baby oil, baby oil, rub it on, rub it up baby” for days afterward.)
The song’s chanting chorus is infectious, seeping under your skin like the chemical-filled substance of the song’s title, and the absolutely wild guitar solo that breaks the song up is like something off a David Lee Roth album. Sidewinder defies genre and convention to bring the masses a truly danceable anthem that is still very much rooted in her roots as a feminist badass. She’s a symbol of powerful female sexuality and agency – not unlike Lizzo or Mitski – and her Aussie accent makes everything she’s selling you all that much sweeter. (To be honest, I’d buy whatever she’s peddling if she had a Geordie accent and wore nothing but paper bags. She’s that good.)
Sidewinder is taking the world by storm, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I woke up the day after this article gets published to find that she’s the hottest musical commodity since Madonna. She’s played in Paris, at South by Southwest, and just finished a triumphant tour of her home country of Australia. She even showed off her inner Lady Gaga-in-A-Star-is-Born at a show in New York, where she “serenaded Bradley Cooper AND The Gladiator (aka Russell Crowe) from atop the bar banister”. She works hard for her money (so hard for it, honey), and the effort she puts into her work shines through in the wonderful shows she puts on and the excellent records she puts out.
The fact that she’s willing to get her hands dirty is also a testament to her dedication and the power she holds that translates into her music – at her performances, she’s more than willing to hop into the crowd to pull them into her show, and she’s said herself that she’s going to fund her upcoming album, ‘Forever or Whatever’, entirely by selling panties on her website!
She’s the Debbie Harry for our generation, a talent of immense power and freedom that seems hard to fathom until you’re standing in a room with her and she’s waving her handmade boa at you, kicking around in her heels and bedazzled tights. (I’d know. I’ve seen it in person. It’s a lot in the best way.) Holiday Sidewinder is the Pop Provocateur Princess that we all need in our lives – and she comes to you, Baby Oil and badass voice and all, through her girl power anthems.
You can stream Baby-Oil now, and download it on your music platform of choice, along with the rest of her singles. But remember – don’t actually use baby oil on yourself. It’s awfully toxic….just like many other things.
