Hayley Kiyoko and Fletcher have recently dropped a music video for their new song “Cherry,” which was released in November 2021. The music video, which was directed by Kristen Jan Wong, depicts sweet scenes of a cute young crush that surprises us with a love triangle.
I’m really here for lesbian and bisexual artists translating the usual, sickly sweet pop songs about heterosexual teenagers (or young adults) for the sapphics. I don’t advocate for banning all lesbian media with dark themes–the reality is we do face particular struggles by being homosexual in a heteronormative world and we shouldn’t pretend we don’t–but it’s nice that uplifting lesbian media is on the rise. It’s time we have some fun. That’s why I stan JoJo Siwa.
Do you remember the sugary 90s to early 2000s rom-com pop and RnB songs about young hetero couples? Well there’s a renaissance, and it’s lesbian. Whether it be Ivy Sole bringing us back to sensual early-2000s RnB, Rina Sawayama’s Britney Spears-goes-metal style, or Hayley Kiyoko singing about cherries, us 25+-year-olds get to revisit the 90s music we grew up on and relate to it. It’s time for some lesbian joy through the art of music.
The song urges lesbian and bisexual women to take the plunge and introduce yourself to a crush. “[It’s] a way of introducing yourself to people and breaking the ice,” Kiyoko says to Elle, about the chorus (“Cherry / Hello, nice to meet you, my name’s Hayley”).
And that’s kind of how Fletcher and Hayley Kiyoko came to collaborate. “I was picking up sushi and I get a text and I look down, it’s Hayley Kiyoko,” Fletcher says. “And then she’s like, “Hi, should we do a song together?” And I was like, “We absolutely should. And then we should screenshot this text and this should be the promo for when we can finally do a song together.”
Finding “Cherry,” however, was a forage. “We got in the studio and we wrote something, and I don’t really think we loved it. And we’re like, “Okay, we’ll try something else.” And then “Cherry” came about—I was working on the song and as I was originally writing it, I was envisioning Hayley being on it for some reason…We wrote a verse and Hayley had a bridge idea and it just all came to life.”
The song was also inspired by returning to the dating arena with a heightened social anxiety many people are experiencing during the pandemic. “Unfortunately in this pandemic, I feel like I have way more social anxiety,” Hayley says. “I feel like I forgot how to speak to people or introduce myself, and especially as queer people being single, [so the song is] just a nice introduction and a way of introducing yourself to people and breaking the ice.That’s what I loved about the playfulness of the lyrics of the chorus.”
“Cherry” is also a “hello again!” to the artists’ fans. “I also have developed a really good amount of social anxiety over the last year as well,” Fletcher says. “[So “Cherry”] felt like a reintroduction of: This is who I am and this is what I’ve been up to and, “Hi, it’s good to see you guys again.”
“I think, honestly, the intention behind making this song was just to bring joy,” Fletcher adds. “I think it’s been a really, really rough year and a bit for people and to be able to have a song that just feels like serotonin, to even be able to just make that for myself, was really important for me.”
The song is flirtatious, playful and mischievous, partly because of the comedic love triangle. “Cari and I were like, “Are we singing it to each other? Are we both dating the same person?” Hayley says. “And so as you’ll see in the video, we made this artistic approach of: we’re both going after the same girl, but not knowing that we’re going after the same girl, and her name is Cherry.”
Unlike love triangles that turn heated, the song has a feminist slant. “It’s all about women supporting women and I love that we were able to collaborate and unite and support one another and do a song together and have that be a moment,” Hayley says. “It’s fun, it’s flirty, it’s catchy. And I hope it puts a smile on a listener’s face or, if they’re going through something, they can escape and… be careful of the girls named Cherry, apparently, after watching the video.”
