"szn one", track by track by promqueen
Photo credit: Faith Fonseca
Opening scene. 4th grade. I won the school perfect attendance award and am gifted a brand new sparkly pink bicycle. Somehow my principal is perplexed because I did not react in the slightest. My face froze like a statue as teachers and students crowd around me congratulating. “She is just like that. She doesn’t show any emotion but she is excited. I can assure you,” my mom apologetically shares over the phone.
Cut to scene at promqueen’s home. I am crooning at the top of my lungs, squirming wildly in front of our TV to karaoke in both Vietnamese and English. I am a star. I’m having the time of my life expressing myself to the fullest.
promqueen is a coming back to that little star.
szn one is my culturally coming out album, where I share the journey of embracing these parts of myself and my family on my own terms. It’s a TV pilot for my life, setting the characters, tone and arch that we will see evolve over the seasons.
“(you can hear me now)” is a true story. In 2022, I was literally going to give up on performing and being “the artist” thing. It wasn’t that I thought I wasn’t good enough. I was actually ok with putting a pause this part of my career and focusing on songwriting for others. Then promqueen freaking happened. She said, nope, we’ve got more feelings to express. We’ve got more story to tell. You aren’t done yet.
“salty & sweet” is my favorite track. I speak of many things I love in this song but mainly, The Matrix. I LOVE the Matrix. My mom and I bond over this movie. This song is about all the things that make up promqueen. I am many things and nothing. It keeps you on your toes and constantly surprises you. That’s where the real fun is! Does she allude to a szn two in a verse? *promqueen winks*.
“liteweight”: I’m in 5th grade on a car ride with my mom after she finished working her waitress shift. We pull up to the pawn shop. I don’t really want to get out of the car because I’m playing the Pokemon red version on my gameboy pocket (contrast only). I reluctantly get out and head into the shop with her. She makes small talk with the pawn shop owner and makes a layaway payment on gold jewelry. Little did I know all her beautiful jewelry she has passed on to me came from her off days of dropping in to the pawn shop. This song is about her and an indulgent life I desperately wish for her.
“Exotic”: Powerful. Strong. Dynamic. Pure luscious beasts. That’s how I want Asian American women and those beyond the binary to feel when they hear this song. I wrote this for AANHPI (Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander) women in my life who have been spoken over, had their power taken away from them, been oversexualized and diminished. This song is a rallying cry to stand up and in the words of Queen Bey, “get in formation”.
“(lang nghe ky)”: Lang nghe ky means listen closely because promqueen’s got something to say. As I mentioned. promqueen is dramatic. Yes, this track sounds like an epic scene from Die Hard in the midst of a heist. If she could have fireworks, she would. Who knows? Maybe she will.
“Xi Xon” means “sassy, with attitude, with style”. It’s what my parents called me when I was little. This song is a celebration of my childhood upbringing and sticking true to who I am. My favorite line is “make it rain muc/squid on my face”. Fun fact, “Xi Xon” is the first promqueen song we wrote. Thanks to my producer and main right hand, waverly, for believing we could write something so fun and out of this world that jump started this entire project.
“out of my head”. My 90s R&B throwback track. We are sitting on a stoop outside our Brooklyn apartment on a spring day as the sun sets, eating some sandwiches from a bodega and everyone in the neighborhood is out hanging. You see your crush across the way and they smile back. This song is about that. Nostalgic sunny love. Butterflies are a main theme in this song and how they form, grow, and bloom. Love is a rinse and repeat of that process. This track features cowriter, KAKI, our buddy Joe Kyung Hee Cho on guitar, me on keys and the producer wizard himself, waverly.
“bts girl”: I was always the bts girl, the one in the background who had a million crushes but never said anything to them in real life. When I did say something, it looked like. “Hi, do you remember me, remember, we were in choir together, we sang in these sections…”, while the other person offered a blank stare, almost feeling sorry for my earnest recollection. Story of my life. This song is about that – feeling like a goof but a loveable goof. We thought to end on this because as promqueen states, she’s sticking around for szn two and more.