Addison Rae Wants You To Put Your ‘Headphones On’

Social media star-turned-singer Addison Rae has spent the past year proving detractors wrong following the release of her 2023 debut EP AR. Last year her gold-certified single “Diet Pepsi” took her to the Billboard charts for the first time, and last week, the Louisiana native made her Coachella debut. Ahead of her second performance this weekend, Rae has released the single “Headphones On,” the latest taste of her forthcoming debut album.

“Headphones On” follows the single “High Fashion” released in February and “Aquamarine” — along with the Arca remix “Arcamarine” — from last fall. “Guess I gotta accept the pain / Need a cigarette to make me feel better / Every good thing comes my way,” she sings on the track. “So I put my headphones on / Listen to my favorite song / Letting my hair down.”

Looking back at her entry into the music world, Rae acknowledged that she didn’t have the slightest idea of how the industry worked and how she would carve her own lane once she arrived.

“I think in the beginning I was so naïve and fearless, and that was a pretty nice combination to have stepping into it all, because I was willing to experiment,” she told Interview last year of her musical passion. People wanted to say, ‘Oh, she’s just a TikToker.’ Which to me didn’t make sense, because I was like, ‘What even is that?’ Do people grow up and say, ‘I want to be a TikToker?’ Maybe nowadays, but I grew up dancing, and TikTok was just a through line. And I already knew there were other things I was interested in growing up.”

Throwing her care for naysayers’ opinion to the wind was crucial for Rae to reach new heights. “I had to rethink everything,” she told Rolling Stone in January of her transition from doing TikTok dances to making music. “I was like, ‘How am I going to get to a place where on my own, I feel like I can do this and feel confident in it, and fully deliver what I feel like is the best version of this?’”

Rae’s debut album arrives June 6.