Christian Tierney It’s been a minute since we’ve had a new single from Hailee Steinfeld, since she’s busy with her day job as an actress, starring in the Transformers prequel Bumblebee and voicing a character in Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse. But now she’s back…with a song from her latest acting project.
Hailee is starring in and executive producing Dickinson, an Apple TV+ series about legendary 19th century poet Emily Dickinson. She also co-wrote and sings the song “Afterlife (Dickinson),” which was inspired by themes of Emily Dickinson’s poems, including death and mortality.
Hailee sings, “Will death be our last kiss, my love?/Will you promise me you’ll search for us?/Will you find me afterlife?”
“This record has become one of my favorite songs I’ve worked on and sonically, it’s indicative of the direction I’m exploring with my new music,” Hailee says of the track, which mixes ethereal vocals with a synth-heavy, percussive beat.
“There’s a line in the song that says ‘immortality is bliss’ and it’s reminiscent of a lot of Emily’s poems,” she explains. “She lived during a time where women were forbidden from voicing their opinions and restricted in many ways, including how they dressed.”
That’s why the single artwork shows Hailee wearing a corset that’s cinched to create an impossibly small waist — she says she wanted to show “how Emily in particular felt constricted and stifled.”
Dickinson’s most famous poems include “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” “Because I could not stop for Death” and “I’m Nobody! Who are you?“
Dickinson will be available on Apple TV+ November 1.
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