[Verse 1] He looked up and said I wasn’t landing right Said nobody, nobody was responding to my sound Said I needed something “a little” different in my look Said my numbers weren’t enough to go around
Then he said maybe if I, you know, changed my face a bit Maybe if my body read a certain kinda way on stage Maybe if I glittered up a little more or even more Maybe I’d belong on somebody’s page —
[Pre-Chorus - processing, unsettled] And so I then wrote it down Because he said it twice And I believed it for a moment Longer than I actually intended
[Chorus] Gaslighting He’s good at it, I’ll give him that Gaslighting Made me doubt the thing I was looking at He made the problem sound like something I should fix When the problem was the person with the clipboard and the list Gaslighting I almost let him Gaslighting Almost
[Verse 2] He said my voice was fine but needed a little shaping Said my message wasn’t landing with “my” crowd Said the lips, the weight, the nose, the presentation Said I needed to be louder but not too loud
And I sat across from him in a very, very beige office Nodding at the things I couldn’t verify Wondering how he knew so much about my audience When he never once sat in my crowd and tried to find me
[Pre-Chorus] And then I just, I stopped Because something was happening The list was getting longer And I was getting smaller
[Chorus] Gaslighting He’s good at it, I’ll give him that Gaslighting Made me doubt the thing I was looking at He made the problem sound like something I should fix When the problem was the person with the clipboard and the list Gaslighting I almost let him Gaslighting Almost
[Bridge - quietest moment, the recognition] I went home and listened back To the recordings he said weren’t landing And there were people in the comments Saying things I didn’t know they were saying
Seven hundred sixty four people saying she’s the reason They made it through a specific kind of bad And I sat there with my list of things to change And I thought. I thought, I thought -
—this isn’t real. The problem isn’t me. The list isn’t a list of improvements. It’s just a list. From someone who doesn’t know what I am.
[Spoken - calm, final] So I sent an email. Subject line: Thank you for your time. Body: I won’t be continuing. Sent.
[Chorus] Gaslighting He’s good at it, I’ll give him that Gaslighting Made me doubt the thing I was looking at He made the problem sound like something I should fix When the problem was the person with the clipboard and the list Gaslighting I almost let him Gaslighting Almost
[Final Chorus - key lift, fully clear] Gaslighting He was good at it — past tense Gaslighting Made me doubt — briefly, in present The problem wasn’t me, the problem had a name And the name had a beige office and a very long list of shame Gaslighting I didn’t let him, Gaslighting Done.
[Outro - flat, certain] The list is in the trash. The voice is fine. The message is landing. The nose is mine.