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Gigi Perez
American singer-songwriter (born 2000)
Gianna Brielle "Gigi" Perez is an American singer-songwriter. Born in Hackensack, New Jersey to Cuban parents and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida, she went viral on TikTok for her songs "Celene" and "Sometimes (Backwood)" and spent a period signed to Interscope Records, on which she released the 2023 EP How to Catch a Falling Knife.
After leaving the label, she released "Sailor Song," which peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Sailor Song" topped the charts in Ireland, Latvia, and the United Kingdom, and peaked within the top ten of the charts in various countries, including New Zealand and Norway.
She has also supported artists such as Coldplay, Noah Cyrus, Girl in Red, Annabelle Dinda, Hozier and Noah Kahan on tour.
The Static TimesExtra
Early life and education
Gianna Brielle Perez was born on February 4, 2000, in Hackensack, New Jersey to Cuban parents, and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida. She spent a year at a comprehensive before moving to a Christian school, The King's Academy, where she acted in musicals and was named 2017 homecoming queen. Perez is a lesbian and has credited "Girls Like Girls" by Hayley Kiyoko with helping her accept her sexuality.
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Career
To cope with the grief of losing her sister in 2020, Perez began uploading videos to TikTok. She went viral in early 2021 after uploading the song "Celene" to SoundCloud, then followed by "Sometimes (Backwood)", both of which gained traction on TikTok, which led to her signing with Interscope Records.
The Static Times2025
Sailor Song
2024 single by Gigi Perez
"Sailor Song" is a song by American singer-songwriter Gigi Perez, released as a single on July 26, 2024. Her third independent track following her departure from Interscope Records, it went viral on TikTok and peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Outside of the United States, "Sailor Song" topped the charts in Ireland, Latvia, and the United Kingdom, and peaked within the top ten of the charts in various countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and Norway.
Background
Perez went viral on TikTok in 2021 for her tracks "Celene" and "Sometimes (Backwood)", prompting Interscope Records to sign her and release her EP How to Catch a Falling Knife. Following her release from the label, Perez reverted to releasing music independently, starting with "Normalcy" and "Please Be Rude" in 2024. The single was released on 7-inch vinyl on January 10, 2025.
Composition
Perez wrote "Sailor Song" in her bedroom in February 2024, having thought of the idea in the shower. At the time, she had been ruminating on the idea of a quick infatuation, and wrote the song while playing with her guitar, "kiss me on the mouth and love me like a sailor" first. She recorded the song using a Shure SM7 and recorded three vocals, which were panned to the left, the right, and the centre. An acoustic ballad, she began teasing the track on TikTok in April 2024, where it went viral. The song describes Perez being attracted to a woman who looks like actress Anne Hathaway. In the chorus, she asks her lover to "kiss me on the mouth and love me like a sailor" and "And when you get a taste, can you tell me, what's my flavor?"
Reception
Perez released the track on July 26, 2024; by August 27, the initial clip had soundtracked over 40,000 videos on the platform and the official audio had been used in over 75,000. The song drew criticism from conservative Christian communities online for the lyrics "I don't believe in God / But I believe that you're my savior". In August 2024, in response to requests to remove this lyric, Perez wrote in captions on TikTok that she would not entertain such a lyric change as her songwriting was "not a democracy".
