I have conflicting feelings about this song. On the other hand it’s an empowerment song for women, but at the same time, the video is as traditional as it gets. Not to mention the lines about her “sword size”.
“And you might think I’m weak without a sword
But if I had one, it’d be bigger than yours”
By the way! If you're into pop music, you might want to check out our Fresh Electronic Pop playlist on Spotify
Remember, it’s not about the size of the sword, but how you use it. An internal conflict can make a pop song way more interesting than it would otherwise be, and I think that the lyrics strike a good balance between having something to say and having fun with it. It is acknowledged in the lyrics, that we all need each other, but you should respect the strengths of your partner(s).
The production style of this song isn’t exactly pushing any boundaries. The synth sounds are retro and there are lots of guitars and other acoustic instruments, which is not to say that they don’t belong in contemporary pop music, but clearly the production aims to be more timeless than contemporary. Timelessness is a good thing in my book.
Kings & Queens follows your run-of-the-mill song structure, which works well. There aren’t many surprises here, but it’s a solid song with a nice melody. It’s tough to beat the gigantic success of “Sweet But Psycho”, and while it may not happen anytime soon, I’m sure that one day Ava Max will have an even bigger hit. She’s a talented songwriter, backed with a team of top producers and writers, including Desmond Child.
I couldn’t help but notice the Beats headphones product placement. There’s a nice detail of Ava playing the air piano on the headphones. Overall, the video suits the song very well, even though there’s a slight contrast between the message of the song and the style of the video. But who cares, it’s just pop music.
I like Ava Max’s release strategy. She’s always got something new coming up. Whenever she drops a new single, it is soon followed by a slew of remixes, usually dropped one by one in the following weeks. As a fan, you’ll get your fix of the artist regularly, and the remixers get a good piece of the attention too. The crowd keeps dancing while they prepare for the next big release. Every new release will most likely have a bigger audience, because every release will attract new fans, and the bigger the artist gets, the more attention they get, since it’s in the best interest of the media to write about the more known artists. The fans who have been with Ava Max since day one are unlikely to abandon her because of a new single, even if they don’t enjoy it as much as they enjoyed the first song they heard from Ava. In today’s music industry, releasing singles is the only reasonable strategy.
Lyrics
If all of the kings had their queens on the throne
We would pop champagne and raise a toast
To all of the queens who are fighting alone
Baby, you’re not dancin’ on your own
Can’t live without me, you wanna’ but you can’t, no, no, no
Think it’s funny, but honey, can’t run this show on your own
I can feel my body shake, there’s only so much I can take
I’ll show you how a real queen behaves, oh
No damsel in distress, don’t need to save me
Once I start breathin’ fire, you can’t tame me
And you might think I’m weak without a sword
But if I had one, it’d be bigger than yours
If all of the kings had their queens on the throne
We would pop champagne and raise a toast
To all of the queens who are fighting alone
Baby, you’re not dancin’ on your own
Disobey me, then baby, it’s off with your head
Gonna change it and make it a world you won’t forget
No damsel in distress, don’t need to save me
Once I start breathin’ fire, you can’t tame me
And you might think I’m weak without a sword
But I’m stronger than I ever was before
If all of the kings had their queens on the throne
We would pop champagne and raise a toast
To all of the queens who are fighting alone
Baby, you’re not dancin’ on your own
In chess, the king can move one space at a time
But queens are free to go wherever they like
You get too close, you’ll get a royalty high
So breathe it in to feel the love
If all of the kings had their queens on the throne
We would pop champagne and raise a toast
To all of the queens who are fighting alone
Baby, you’re not dancin’ on your own