songs and stories | the spotify wrapped tag 2023

Hey there, friends! So, the end of the year is nigh, and you know what that means...it's Spotify Wrapped season!!! I know plenty of people roll their eyes at what they perceive as "basic" social media behavior, but I, personally, love seeing everyone's Spotify Wrapped! Y'all know I'm a singer and music is...beyond my hobby—it's one of my greatest passions, so maybe that revelation comes as no surprise. Anyhoo, this season also brings a great opportunity to merge my love of books and music by doing the Spotify Wrapped Book Tag! I saw Rosina do this tag again this year and I wanted to hop in on the fun, so I decided to do it myself! I am modifying this tage a bit, though. Because this reading year was just alright in terms of quality, I'm gonna recommend books I've read not only in 2023, but also from previous years. And, also, instead of placing my Spotify Wrapped playlist on "random," I'm just recommending books for each song on my official "Top 5 Songs of 2023" list. But enough with my chattering, let's check out my 2023 Spotify Wrapped and the books I've chosen to go along with it!

Before anything: FREE PALESTINE!!! 🍉 For over half a century now, the Israeli government has been enacting a genocide against the Palestinian people. This is more than something that started on October 7, 2023. It's not complicated. It's genocide. And it's important that we witness, raise our voices, protest, and fight against it in any way possible. Below are a list of resources to help educate yourself on Palestine, as well as to donate to aid the Palestinian people. In addition, I've added some Palestinian influencers and journalists you can follow to learn more from and who keep track of what's going on. Peace to all and keep fighting the good fight!

• Decolonize Palestine
• Free Palestine Carrd
• Help Palestine Carrd

• Medical Aid for Palestinians
• Palestinian Children's Relief Fund

• Motaz (journalist)
• Bisan / Her Backup Account (journalist)
• Plestia (journalist)
• Subhi (influencer)

I love listening to non-Western music from all over the world, so this comes as no surprise, haha! And I can definitely admit that this song was by far and away my favorite of the year! It's a tribute by Sudanese artist Alsarah to Sudanese women and it's just so funky and has such a great groove to it! I just love it so much and I still listen to it frequently to this day!! So, for this I'm recommending an African authored book that celebrates the power of girls/women, that book being: The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna! The Gilded Ones is a wonderfully feminist YA fantasy authored by a female, African author and following a teenage girl who's coded as mixed race Black. The story is all about sisterhood and girl power and it's just a stellar read!! Plus, bonus points from me for this book including a cute animal sidekick! I mean, what's not to love?!

This is another unsurprising pick, given that I love Arab pop. This song is just such a bop! I know American and Western listeners may not be used to the sound and the beat, but I grew up listening to Arab music at home, so for me this Arab pop like this song just totally gets me up and dancing! For this song, I did end up choosing a book that I read this year, and it's one of my new favorite Arab-inspired fantasy, especially because it's by an author who's Lebanese, like me! The book I'm talking about is Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim! I absolutely adored this YA Arab-inspired fantasy which took on themes of empire, colonization, racism, classism, and being a bystander to atrocities. Spice Road is a thoughtful, yet action packed and adventure filled fantasy and I'm begging y'all to read it because it's just so damn good!!!

The feminist anthem of the year!! This song took the world by storm around International Women's Day this year, but I continued to love it thorughout the year. I love how Paloma used her song's fame to shout out marginalized women's work in the feminist movement, and how the song really ties together the struggles of women and the struggles of the working class and the impoverished. More than any other feminist anthem, I think "labour" just totally gets the message right! Naturally, for this song, I just had to choose a feminist fiction work I've read, so I ended up choosing another one of my favorites of 2023, A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid. A Study in Drowning is a dark and dreary—but never dull!!—dark academia fantasy with heavy feminist themes surrounding sexual assault, sexual harassment, and misogyny and sexism. It's very much about women reclaiming their power, and I loved it so much! Definitely a must read, although serious trigger warnings for the aforementioined themes, as well as for PTSD, depression, anxiety, and loss of a loved one.

"Eat Your Young" was the first single Hozier dropped off his latest album, which he released in 2023. And I totally get why! The song just has this deliciously dark groove that plays into the ground between rock and soul and shows off the depth of Hozier's vocals—so of course I love it! For this song I wanted to go with something dark and ambitious, kinda giving the same vibe as the opening lyrics "I'm starving, darling / let me put my lips to something / let me wrap my teeth around the world." I ended up going with The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake. This book totally fits the kinda hungry and ambitious vibe that I get from the sound of "Eat Your Young". It's all about six ambitious "magicians" competeing for power, after all, so what could be more fitting, right?! Now, The Atlas Six is DEFINITELY more vibes than logic and more character driven than plot driven, but if you find the characters interesting and the vibes immaculate, then it might just be the book for you!

As you can see above, Olivia Rodrigo ended up being my #1 Artist of 2023, so is it any real surprise that one of the songs from GUTS (her 2023 album release) is in my Top 5 Songs list? Probably not, lol! I love the youthful feminine rage that pretty much all of Rodrigo's music has ingrained into it. It's definitely a feeling I (still) strongly relate to, but have never felt able to adequately describe (despite literally every other woman knowing what I'm talking about), so it was nice to feel so seen and understood. Anyhoo, "bad idea right?" describes perfectly the feeling of knowing someone is bad for you but wanting them so badly that you let them pull you in anyway. Your brain is screaming "no!" but you just said "yes!" vibes. For this song, I'm recommending yet another 2023 read, and one of my new all-time favorite webcomics, Purple Hyacinth by Ephemerys and Sophism! It's fantasy/thriller webcomic all about a cop who has the ability to "see" lies and an assassin working for a terrorist organization who make a deal to team up and take down the terrorist organization together. Thrilling levels of intrigue and action ensue, in addition to lots of *romance* and it's so fucking good lemme tell y'all!!! Definitely read this banger of a webcomic, I promise you won't regret it!!!

• What is your favorite song off of your Spotify Wrapped 2023?
• Do you have any book recommendation(s) that go with that song?
• If you don't do Spotify Wrapped, what's your favorite song of the moment and what book would you pair it with?