Today, DEBBY FRIDAY is sharing the incredible official video for “WHAT A MAN,” a standout from GOOD LUCK, her full-length debut, available now worldwide on Sub Pop.
 
In a statement for the video, DEBBY FRIDAY offers this: “The ‘WHAT A MAN’ music video is loosely based on the famous essay, Ways of Seeing, by English art critic John Berger as well as paintings by the Italian Baroque painter, Artemisia Gentileschi (in particular, her iconic work “Judith Slaying Holofernes”).
 
In 1972, Berger released “Ways of Seeing” as both a television series via the BBC and a book. Both the series and the text function as image-based explorations of the depiction of women in Western art and culture. This work has been massively influential in cultural theory, as it introduced the concept of “the male gaze.”
 
Gentileschi is distinctive for being one of the only female professional artists of her era. Her paintings draw from myths and Biblical stories and almost always feature women as protagonists and equals to men. Arguably her most famous work, Judith Slaying Holofernes, is thought to be a self-portrait that depicts her as Judith slaying a Holofernes who resembles Agostino Tassi, a man who raped her when she was 17.
 
Both the essay and the paintings served as frameworks for the video. The same way that Gentileschi painted herself into images of other women is the same way I feel that every woman can see ourselves in much of Gentileschi’s story and her work. To be a woman and an artist in this world is to be, in a way, a shapeshifter. You take on the shape of whatever and whoever is looking at you - whether that be a camera, a phone, a lover, a thief, a killer. Always and all at once, you are a spectacle, a flower, a treasure, a ditch, a bitch, a miracle.
 
“When I look at Artemisia’s paintings, I feel myself transported and transformed into the emotional field of Judith, of Jael, of Susanna. Her hand is my hand, her sword is my sword, her pain is my pain. I have always identified with women who were wild and brazen - survivors, people who exist and persist despite. I have always looked up to women who were willing to be ‘bad’ in the name of living thoroughly.”
 
Watch the “WHAT A MAN” official video, directed by Kevan Funk and DEBBY FRIDAY, here.
 
DEBBY FRIDAY has extended her international headlining tour dates and festival appearances supporting GOOD LUCK. Touring resumes Wednesday, April 12th in Portland, OR at Mississippi Studios and now runs through Sunday, September 3rd in Seattle at Bumbershoot.
 
New dates for this announcement include shows in the UK (Manchester and Leeds), France (Paris), Portugal (Lisbon), Australia (Sydney, Melbourne),  Belgium (Brussels), and Canada (Quebec City, QC).
 
Of her recent appearances at SXSW, Rolling Stone raved: “Welcome to Planet Debby: If you wandered into the back room at Empire Garage and Control Room at the right moment on Thursday afternoon, you found yourself in the middle of an interstellar rave in full swing. Toronto experimental artist Debby Friday was onstage, performing a thudding electro-rap song with hints of Azealia Banks and Donna Summer… Leaping off the stage into the small crowd, she demanded that they come closer — “I need your energy!” — and kept on chanting, in a long vamp that bent space and time. It was the kind of serendipitous moment that makes SXSW one of the best places in the world to discover a new favorite.”
 

 
Her upcoming short film GOOD LUCK is a pseudo-autobiographical tale, largely drawn from FRIDAY’s own life and experiences growing up as a zillenial anti-heroine. A surrealist reflection on the tumultuous whirlwind that is the end of adolescence and the emotionality of youth, GOOD LUCK is co-directed by FRIDAY and Nathan De Paz Habib (Chino Amobi’s Eroica, and The Bicycle).
 
GOOD LUCK is available now from Sub Pop. LP purchases from megamart.subpop.com, select independent stores in North America, the U.K., and E.U., and DEBBY FRIDAY’s live shows will receive the limited Loser edition on metallic silver vinyl (while supplies last).
 
GOOD LUCK features “SO HARD TO TELL,” “I GOT IT,” “WHAT A MAN,” and “HOT LOVE,”  was co-produced by DEBBY FRIDAY and Graham Walsh (METZ, Holy Fuck) at Candle Recording Studio in Toronto, and mastered by Heba Kadry in New York.
 
GOOD LUCK and its singles have earned DEBBY FRIDAY praise from the likes of New York Times, Pitchfork, Stereogum, NPR Music, The FADER, Billboard, CRACK, Loud & Quiet, Slant, Nylon, FLOOD, Cool Hunting, Brooklyn Vegan, Treble, Dork, DIY, CLASH, Our Culture and more.
 
What people are saying about DEBBY FRIDAY:
“Her first full-length is sweaty and determined, eager to deliver on its teeth-chattering beats with a feverish intensity. The influences are obvious, but the ways that Debby Friday crashes those sounds together are not (Album of the Week).” - STEREOGUM
 
“GOOD LUCK is an assured and frequently surprising debut that feels like a trip into the lascivious, eclectic wormhole of Friday’s world – and with so much to take in, and so much fun to be had, you won’t want to leave (8/10).” - CRACK
 
“There’s an extraordinary elasticity across GOOD LUCK’s masterful production that makes repeated listens not just enjoyable but irresistible (8/10, Album of the Week).” - LOUD & QUIET
 
“[Her] most fully realized set of songs to date. The abrasion and urgency of her early EPs remains, but the 10 songs here lean more heavily toward the pulse of the club—and often a vampiric underground den at that…Friday more openly embraces pop on her debut album, but rarely does so outside the presence of the shadow and mystique her music so often casts (Album of the Week).” - Treble
 
“DEBBY defies easy categorization, mixing rap, electro, post-punk, industrial, techno and more into a glitchy, bruising and bitcrushed blend that is fiery, magnetic and all her own.” [GOOD LUCK] - Brooklyn Vegan
 
“…An album that testifies to the liberating potential of making a racket.” [GOOD LUCK] - SLANT
 
“An explosive, pounding, relentlessly calisthenic dance-floor banger with attitude to spare. A pulsating beat flickers like a strobe light as Friday and Chris Vargas of the duo Pelada, appearing here as Uñas, trade braggadocious bilingual verses. ‘Let mama give you what you need,’ Friday shrieks before calmly assuring, ‘I got it.’” [“I GOT IT”] - New York Times
 
“In contrast to the pulse-quickening tempos and noisy synths of her past music, her production is deft and graceful, with a skipping beat and cascading backing vocals. ‘Lady Friday/All you do is rеbel,’ Friday chastises herself—tough talk against a fragile, gorgeous sound.” [“SO HARD TO TELL”/ “Best New Track”] - Pitchfork
 
“One of the young year’s most audacious bangers” [“SO HARD TO TELL”] - Billboard
 
“Intoxicating…” [“SO HARD TO TELL”] - Stereogum
 
“Hyperpop can sometimes come off as abrasive but in the hands of Canadian singer DEBBY FRIDAY it’s soulful, even elegant.” [“SO HARD TO TELL”] -  NYLON
 
“A graceful entrance into yet another territory: lush R&B”[“SO HARD TO TELL”] - NPR Music
 
“If you’ve ever deep-dived into Debby Friday’s discography, you’ll know she slammed this single into left field, but man is it a hit! This edgy extraordinaire has taken a dip into the darkside via falsetto pop.”  ” [“SO HARD TO TELL”] - MTV
 
“Friday strikes a remarkable balance on her forthcoming debut LP, GOOD LUCK: between the boisterous and the tranquil, the erudite and the crass, a packed dancefloor and quiet isolation. Featuring unequivocal bangers like “I Got It,” “Pluto Baby,” and “Heartbreakerrr,” Debby Friday is destined for bigger stages in 2023 (“15 Artists to Watch in 2023”).” - SPIN

DEBBY FRIDAY
GOOD LUCK
 
Tracklisting:
1. GOOD LUCK
2. SO HARD TO TELL
3. I GOT IT (feat. Uñas)
4. HOT LOVE
5. HEARTBREAKERRR
6. WHAT A MAN
7. SAFE
8. LET U DOWN
9. PLUTO BABY
10. WAKE UP