While Naye Ayla’s “Mercury” might not be about the planet, your emotions will still be affected by listening to and watching the latest music video for the Joburg-based singer/songwriter.
The song is named after the element, Mercury, a unique, malleable, liquid metal, that, if you’re not careful, just might drive you mad as a hatter. Although you probably know it from thermostats, Naye relates to the element on a deeper level. She explains its appeal to her in the press release by saying “Mercury is the only metal that exists in liquid form and for me that speaks of an element that defies all odds, that stands on its own. It is an anomaly.” To Naye, “That’s what it feels like as a woman.”
In “Mercury”, Naye Ayla moulds herself into the woman she desires herself to be. A woman who loves herself first. Although the song is addressed to a paramour who breaks her heart, it’s about the strength she finds in herself. There’s a duality to some of the lyrics where she could be calling out to the partner, or herself. When she says “I’m ready, come over and get me.” Is she talking to him, or a reformed version of herself?
As she explains it, “In this song, I express as a woman who’s willing and ready to assume form and become the love she speaks of. I express as a woman who believes in second chances and that old explorations can be revisited and brought to life better than before. I insist that we let go of the past and we let go of our failures and do what we feel the way we know [how] to.”
The music video adds new layers to the song by producing an ending that gives it a different context than what you might imagine from the above description. I won’t spoil anything for you, but Naye lets go of the past and her failures in a rather effective fashion.
