Country pop singer Jillian Jacqueline has been at it for a long time. At age nine, she co-starred in the Broadway show, Christmas From The Heart, with Kenny Rogers. She later released “If I Were You”, featuring Keith Urban, while keeping busy on the road, including opening slots for Dwight Yoakam, Thomas Rhett, Brett Eldredge, and Ryan Adams.
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When you list the accomplishments this way, it seems easy. But Jacqueline’s latest album, MotherDaughterSisterWife, offers a detailed account of a life defined by age, identity, uncertainty, and both the little and profound ways we change.
One significant change for Jacqueline was motherhood—the new chapter she began while writing MotherDaughterSisterWife. It’s a series of reflections, little glimpses into the many ways she’s evolved.
The album’s first single, “Cult Classic”, reveals the threshold between young love and something more enduring, leading to the layered identities in Jacqueline’s title.
About “Cult Classic”
Filmmaker John Hughes inspired “Cult Classic”. His coming-of-age teen dramas Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and, as writer, Pretty In Pink, helped define the 1980s. The movies created a kind of subculture of outsiders who heard someone finally speaking for them. Meanwhile, Jacqueline sings about the cult behind her classic romance tale over a dusty track buoyed by softly plucked guitars.
When you love it so much you hate it
Yeah, you know what I’m saying, baby
Turn me on and feel the magic
You and I are a cult classic.
The chorus is a double entendre and leans further into the cinematic metaphor with Swiftian grammar, melody, and wit.
You and I are a cult classic
Kinda die-hard cinematic
Keep you coming back through the static
Guilty pleasure in the attic.
Mother and Wife
Judging by the album title, I don’t think we need a spoiler alert to tell you who Jacqueline sings about in “Cult Classic”. “I’ve always been fascinated by people’s love stories—whether they’re strangers, friends, or anyone willing to share the intimate details of how they fell in love and stayed in love,” she said in a press statement.
“Naturally, my husband and I are one of my favorite love stories,” she added.
But there’s another sentiment appearing in the single: letting go. Any classic film character will show you how the more you try to control events, the more out of control life feels. Having a plan is fine, but often life has other ideas.
“Cult Classic” feels like the messy reality of romantic entanglements, where the best part of letting go is how it allows you to hang on.
Photo Courtesy of Jennifer Vessio PR
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