Nieve Ella Knows What She Needs In Her New Single “Ganni Top”
Photo via Nieve Ella. Shot by Mollie Mckay.
At just 21 years old, indie-pop artist Nieve Ella stands for every young girl’s rockstar aspirations. Think Joan Jett and Pat Benatar meets Wet Leg and Olivia Rodrigo– the ultimate, untouchable embodiment of past and present female icons who have kicked down barriers within the music industry. Packed with hard-hitting and witty lyricism, her highly anticipated single “Ganni Top” delves into new territory and doesn’t beat around the bush. In fact, Nieve never takes her eyes off the crowd during the track’s segment in her live set– and for five months straight before its official release, her fans shouted its lyrics right back louder and louder each time.
Over the last few years, the English singer-songwriter has cultivated an impressively poignant sound that adapts to the ebbs and flows of growing up. After picking up a guitar during lockdown, Nieve became an outpouring of every facet of the teenage emotions she experienced– a season in life where nothing and everything makes sense at the same time. In her EP Young & Naive, we’ve witnessed her leaning into that existential spiral: “Feeling like I’m grown, but I’m still in the backseat / Caught up in a world where I don’t understand me.”
Breaking out of rural England would be the next step, and it wasn’t long before Nieve and her band took to the stage. In the past years, she’s landed the opening slot for artists like Inhaler and Dylan and spent this summer embarking on an 18-date festival run. Nieve is currently on tour supporting Girl in Red for her European leg with bandmates Finn Marlow, Fran Larkin, and Matt Garnett.
After flushing out big feelings about an extinguished flame and its detriment to her self-esteem in her recent project, Lifetime of Wanting, it’s onto the next for Nieve. Her foot is fiercely down, and her confidence has skyrocketed– she gets what she needs, and there’s no arguing against it. “Ganni Top” quickly became deeply integrated into her fandom’s culture after it was teased back in April on TikTok– only two days after it was written, according to Nieve’s caption. She immediately took the track to the stage, where fans became eager and expectant of its appearance in all of her sets. One look at the barricade tells you exactly what you need to know about Nieve’s relationship with her fanbase– they’ll show up and show out with every lyric memorized and sporting custom merch. The successful single promo rollout was clever, organic, and long-lasting, with Nieve maintaining the momentum behind the song’s excitement as her listeners grasped onto every snippet she teased online.
“Hello?” Nieve inquires in the opening line, her voice crackling under a layer of static. Fueled by a newfound certainty in what she wants, the 90s indie-rock song spells out the singer’s desires and demands with thrashing riffs and gut-punching drum kicks. “I’ll break it down for you lovers in the back row seat / It ain’t as easy as they tell you on the magazines,” Nieve advises the crowd, who eagerly awaits her insight. She leans into its cheekily stern tone, which never takes itself too seriously but also doubles down on the importance of a woman’s needs: “Take it step by step / And show him what you need / And he’ll plead / Please, please, please, please.”
“She gets what she needs” is scribbled across the chorus, where Nieve reiterates her non-negotiables in her unrestrained vocals. While this theme weaves itself within the lyrics naturally, it serves as both the final line of the track and the final word from Nieve. She’s learned how to rewrite her fresh start, and there’s no pleading on her end– she’s commanding.
Nieve’s commitment to her music and care for the people listening to it shows us she’s having fun and is in it for the long haul. She took to Instagram to share what she wanted her listeners to take away the most from the single: “It’s been so interesting to watch the teasing of this song reach new people every day, get so many mixed opinions, and how many people get uncomfortable with women talking about their sex life and how we decide to wear our clothes.”
It’s clear she’s got more up her sleeve, and her upcoming project is bound to be an explosive amalgamation of what she’s learned thus far.
Make sure to keep an eye out for Nieve’s next EP Watch It Ache And Bleed, set to release on October 17th. You can pre-save the collection of songs here.
