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VELVET GUILLOTINE

THE UNDERSTUDY

Trained in opera, thrown out for improvising, and has never once sung a song the same way twice

style

  • theatrical
  • dramatic art pop
  • orchestral stabs
  • harpsichord
  • operatic backing vocals
  • spoken-word passages
  • cabaret menace
  • wide dynamic swings
  • french accent
  • grand and sinister

the numbers

bpm
162
key
G minor
energy
0.66
dance
0.92
valence
0.50
vocal at
6.2s
length
2:29
language
En

lyrics

(l'doublure)

Elle a chante ce role pendant onze ans
Eleven years of a part I learned in a corridor
Et moi, j'ai appris chaque respiration qu'elle prend
And I learned every breath she takes, which is a kind of possession

And they call it understudy
As though a person were a spare part
As though I have not been the better one since March

The understudy, the understudy
Waiting is a performance nobody applauds
The understudy, the understudy
I have been magnificent in an empty wing for years

On Tuesday she was ill. On Tuesday I was ready.
Eleven years ready. Four minutes' notice. No warm-up.

The understudy, the understudy
Waiting is a performance nobody applauds
The understudy, the understudy
I have been magnificent in an empty wing for years

They stood up. All of them. For me. And she was in the box.
And she stood up too. She stood up first, actually.
That is the part I did not rehearse and cannot forgive her for.

The understudy, the understudy
Waiting is a performance nobody applauds
The understudy, the understudy
And the wing is empty and the stage is not

(l'doublure...)