Jacqui Beaa Hits Her Stride With Powerful Third Single "Grid Me"

The following feature is now included in our online magazine which is also available in print.

Issue #3

There's something great about seeing an artist come into their own, and Melbourne's Jacqui Beaa appears to be doing just that. Her third single Grid Me substitutes some of the raw emotion of her early work with a self-confident, groove-based anthem that struts its stuff brazenly while still having a hurtful bite. It's the sort of song that straddles dancefloor sing-along and bedroom diary confession, and it's all parts fun and oh-so-relatable.

At first listen, Grid Me is a breezy indie-pop anthem — jaunty basslines, jangly guitar chords, and a hooky beat that dares you not to get up and dance. But beneath its glittering surface is a nicer, more nuanced question that most of us have grappled with privately: why has my boyfriend never posted a photo of us on the internet? In an era where more frequently than not, relationships turn into a scoreboard, Beaa captures the paranoia and the humor of wondering whether love exists if it doesn't get pinned on the grid.

It's this equilibrium — flippant but poignant, danceable but introspective — that makes Grid Me mainstream. The song does not lecture and indulge. Rather, it smirks at the silliness of insecurities during an era of screens and declares just how much it still hurts. It's nearly the same as with the narrative strategy of Paramore's Still Into You, where cloying hooks are jammed up against honest emotional jabs. Listeners who have found themselves caught between laughing at their own neuroses and being bludgeoned by them will understand here.

Beaa's journey to this point is as complicated as her music. Born in Melbourne, she learned to play the guitar at four and spent her teenage years writing songs before breaking onto the city's pub and festival scene. At 20, she derailed into writing, directing and performing short films and even co-writing a mini musical for the 2023 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. It was a learning experience that honed her storytelling and theater skills, skills now spilling over into songwriting. When she came back to music with her debut single full-tilt later in 2024, it was apparent that she had found a voice that was both gritty and lovable.

Grid Me is a peak on this new chapter. It's like the song where Beaa owns it — assertive, clever, and unapologetically relatable. Maggie Rogers' ecstatic introspection fans or G Flip's honest, beat-driven pop lovers will discover a lot to adore here. And there's a hint of Ed Sheeran's ability to take normal worries and turn them into hooky, inescapable earworms that still replay long after the track has finished.

There’s also something cinematic about the track. The paranoia of waiting for your relationship to be Instagram official feels like the kind of subplot you’d catch in a Netflix coming-of-age film, nestled between moments of romantic comedy and heartbreak. Imagine To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before but with the stakes updated for the TikTok generation.

With only three singles to her name, Jacqui Beaa is on the first pages of her life as an artist, but Grid Me offers a glimpse of where she is going. Her skill in converting tiny doubts into songs that radiate confidence is a worthwhile accomplishment, one that separates a songwriter from an artist. You can all too easily imagine Grid Me blasting over festival crowds, the sort of song that individuals dance to with friends while silently wondering why somebody can't respond to their texts.

Follow Our Playlist For More Music!