Relationships bring out the vulnerable side in people. Whether you want to embrace love headfirst and not worry about the repercussions or if you fear what the relationship might bring, “Paper Hearts” by OLIVIA follows the emotional journey of navigating love and its side effects. The song opens with “Let’s trade these two paper hearts so we can rip them apart” which is a pretty powerful way to open a song. Giving a paper heart instead of her actual heart can prevent her real heart from breaking. If the paper rips or tears in half, it’s okay cause she can always find another one to give. The paper hearts can be symbolic of apprehension when entering a relationship because of the fear of heartbreak. Paper hearts are fragile and easily broken, which could also mean she is easily brokenhearted. Love can only be true if you give each other your real hearts, not paper ones.
As stated by the lyric “Six weeks and a couple scars/ it’s been since we fell apart”, the song was written six weeks after her breakup so the hurt is still fresh and the “scars” are the hurt she is experiencing that won’t fade away just yet which could represent Olivia not being able to move on from the relationship. Nothing can fall without gravity and gravity pulls two forces together so the lyric “Because love at 23 is like falling without gravity” is saying that love is a force just like gravity is. When two people are attracted to each other it only intensifies their pull and being in love makes it even stronger. The lyric is saying that love at a young age (23) is bound to not work.“No more giving my soul to anyone…/not again I’d rather go cold” represents how she’s done with giving her all to these relationships and not getting the same energy in return. Even though the relationship is over he still has a piece of her heart and “maybe we’re just wasting time/ but hold me for tonight” is Olivia holding on to whatever’s left of the relationship. “His habits never break even if we change/ we’re still losing” No matter if he says he would change and work on himself, you can’t really expect to fully change a person. Old habits die hard and there’s always a chance they will creep in again. As long as he still has his old habits, the relationship will never work, and she knows that.
“Paper Hearts” is a song you listen to when you need validation and comfort when you experience heartbreak. Produced by Haris, “Paper Hearts” is about loving someone even though they broke your heart and trying to cope with the heartbreak. Although this is an upbeat song, OLIVIA’s voice is soft and smooth. The beat matches with her voice and complements it. She hits higher notes on some of the lyrics she is trying to emphasize. When OLIVIA sings the last lyric “I’d rather go cold” the music just stops short which I think artistically was the perfect way to end the song, it’s like walking away from a bad situation to find true happiness. The cover art is also very symbolic of the themes within the song. There’s a paper heart on her back which reminds me of the saying “wearing your heart on your sleeve” and when you do that, you’re more susceptible to heartbreak. You express your emotions rather than keeping them in, rather than being cold.
OLIVIA (Olivia Trappeniers) is a pop singer from Belgium. She was a contestant of The Voice van Vlaanderen (Belgium version of The Voice) back in 2016. She rose to fame after she won the first Belgium edition of MNM radio station Rising Star competition. OLIVIA has always been a musician. She began playing the guitar and learning Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus songs from YouTube, she even covered “Blank Space” for her Voice audition. She’s collaborated with other artists and has been releasing singles since 2017. Olivia has a captivating way of translating her emotions in her songs. She’s definitely a rising star, check out “Paper Hearts” and give it a listen!
Written By Alexa LaMalfa
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