Freya Ridings celebrates her return to the UK Top 40 with Weekends: "I've been so many versions of myself, you evolve so quickly in your 20s"
09.03.2023 - 19:11
/ officialcharts.com
Freya Ridings is back!
Last week, her glamorous and shimmering new single, Weekends, entered the Official Singles Chart at Number 31, netting Freya her third UK Top 40 single, and first in nearly four years.
A sophisticated post-disco track produced by hitmaker to the stars Steve Mac (Ed Sheeran, Little Mix), Weekends is the perfect introduction to Freya's forthcoming second album, Blood Orange.
After her 2019 self-titled debut contained two Top 20 singles (Top 10 hit Lost Without You and the inescapable radio smash Castles), Freya has taken her time with her sophomore record, what she classes as a "break up and then a make up" record about her relationship with her now-husband (they broke up and got back together, as all good rom-coms begin and end).
Weekends is very much the peacock at the start of the album's journey, finding Freya in the mists of dread and sadness during her breakup, where her creative solitude is broken through with a bracing post-disco production.
"I don't really have friends," she says, "don't go out on weekends. I don't have a lover left to hold."
We caught up with Freya via Zoom as we chatted this next, exciting phase of her career.
Thank you! It was so hard to wait. I've wanted to release this music for so long that it's actually a bit crazy. It just feels a whirlwind these last six months. These last six weeks! It's been so fun. So much of my soul has gone into this record. The fact it's resonating with people [is insane]. You know we got to put it on The Graham Norton Show, and now it's back in the Official Charts.
I've got a new stylist, he is absolutely sublime. I feel so lucky. I didn't even have a stylist, like, two weeks before. I feel very lucky with the whole whirlwind of Weekends.