A few months ago, when speaking to Billboard for a cover story about her friend Gracie Abrams, Audrey Hobert pulled open her Notes app and read aloud the lyrics to one of the first songs the two ever wrote together: a parody version of Smash Mouth’s “All Star.”
“Hey now, shake your ass off/ Get some fuel now, propane/ Hey now, dance your ass off/ Break it down now, slow mane/ All that glitters is gold/ Even sexy ogres, they get old,” she sang to the tune of the signature Shrek soundtrack hit. After reciting the chorus, she immediately covered her face as the cringe of her college-aged self’s antics washed over her.
The childhood besties wrote the song roughly four years ago in Abrams’ basement as a joke. Now, the pop world is taking both singer-songwriters very seriously. In 2024, Abrams’ album The Secret of Us made Hobert a chart-topping co-writer, thanks to the runaway success of Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit “That’s So True,” which the pair crafted while drunk one night on the roof of Electric Lady Studios in New York City. This year, Hobert has leveraged that whirlwind entrance to the music industry into her own solo career, formally introducing herself in May with lead single “Sue Me” — an uber catchy dance-pop song about hooking up with an ex — before dropping her boisterous debut album Who’s the Clown? in August.
Read the full Billboard interview with Audrey Hobert, September’s Chartbreaker, here.
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