How Gigi Perez turned her pain into Sailor Song, her first UK Number 1 single

"Kiss me on the mouth and love me like a sailor," goes the hook of Gigi Perez's breakout hit - and now first UK Number 1 single - Sailor Song.

Today, the lovelorn sapphic ballad ends Sabrina Carpenter's historic 21 weeks at the top of the Official Singles Chart, securing Gigi the first chart-topper of her career, and the most-streamed track in the entire country for this week.

To celebrate her achievement  - and a coup that sends Gigi from an indie artist straight to the centre of mainstream popular music - we were joined by Gigi from her home in the US to discuss, and celebrate, all the roads that led her here.

"I got out of the shower last night and just started crying," Gigi says, over the realisation that she would be heading to the top of the Official Singles Chart. "It is so amazing, but so weird. I'm looking at myself like...what?"

But with that confusion and surprise - two very normal emotions to be feeling during this time! - also comes the realisation that this song, at this exact moment, is serving an entire community and helping them to be seen and heard.

"It's amazing to know that Sailor Song is impacting these communities," Gigi says of fans, both queer and straight, who have helped send it to Number 1. "That it has a place in people's hearts is...you know...it's mind-blowing."

Sailor Song's journey to Number 1 in the UK is fascinating; it's the classic story of making something when your back is up against the wall and turning it into the ultimate validation of your artistry and vision. 

Gigi says she originally came up with the idea for the song (the words that came first were, of course, "kiss me on the mouth and love me like a sailor") in the shower. It was released as her first single as an independent artist, following her split from her previous label Interscope (following the song's success, Gigi has now joined the roster at Island). 

"I feel like I struggled a lot," she says, "with when something was supposed to happen, or if it's your time. You experience things - some real hard traumas - and it just feels like you're floating for the longest time. It's very hard to hold on to hope, but this is definitely shifting those tracks in terms of my faith and believing that things can change and that life will get better. There will be difficult seasons, but things will get better."

Queerness is central to Sailor Song, it is an unapologetically sapphic song, and it's a landmark moment to see such a brazen gay love song reach Number 1 in the UK.

"I think a lot about myself when I was 15," Gigi says, "when I first saw how Sailor Song was connecting to the LGBT+ community, and the girls and how young some of them were too, it really brought me back [to my youth].

"I've been very comfortable in my sexuality for years now, and it's something that's always evolving and changing, but it took a very long time to get here. I grew up in the church, Evangelical, and I think about all the things I was dealing with [then] and I literally never thought it was going to get better. But it does, and did."

Gigi mentions the out-and-proud lesbian pop star Hayley Kiyoko, and her tender love song Girls Like Girls, as a project that "saved" her when she was growing up as a young queer youth, and that is exactly what Sailor Song is doing for the queer youth of 2024. She's come full circle, and has used her own history of pain and doubt to help validate everyone who might be questioning their sexuality today.

"I've always just wanted to serve others through my music," Gigi says. "It fills my heart and fulfills me. You also receive healing that way, too. Just knowing that this song [could do the same] for people...there are no words."

Upon learning that she's going to have the Number 1 song in the UK, the emotion on Gigi's face is plain to see. And it is an emotional moment; the crest of a wave 24 years in the making. Turning your pain and confusion into art that helps people to heal is a true gift, and Gigi is aware of the power of this moment...a moment entirely of her own making, and in service of her community.

“There’s such a big hole in the conversations that we’re having in mainstream music," Gigi states. "There’s an entire group of people - the queer community - who need representation. Knowing that Sailor Song is a vessel for that, it’s amazing. Thank you!” 

As for what she's going to do to celebrate her first UK Number 1 single? She has some ideas.

"I think I want to be made dinner," Gigi laughs. "Maybe made a cake? That's kind of boring but..."

Ultimately, Gigi's journey from independent artist to viral success to UK Number 1 is a trial in believing in yourself and your art more than anything. And this is what she leaves us with; that, as long as you believe in yourself, then you can make anything happen.

"I am the last person that ever thought I would be in this position," she says. "And I think a lot of other people thought the same. So this is for the people who are hurting."

See? It gets better.

Sailor Song by Gigi Perez is out now via Island.