Courtney Govan releases ground breaking new single “before (not after)”

Courtney Govan is a queer independent pop singer from San Diego, California with over 470k followers on tiktok and over 50,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Courtney is known for her first hit single “Serotonin” that went viral on tiktok and landed her on Spotify Editorial playlists like Fresh Finds and Fresh Finds: Pop. Courtney is also known for playing the Auditor on Fox’s Hit New Musical Game show, “I Can See Your Voice”. Courtney brings a contemporary and introspective energy to pop music. Writing bop after bop, Courtney uses her own life experiences to connect with her listeners on a deeper level. She uses her music as a way to lift up the voices of those who feel unheard and unseen. Her humanistic and introspective approach to songwriting brings a refreshing twist to today’s pop music. Courtney’s ultimate goal in her career is to help everyone who comes across her music to feel, seen, safe, and unstoppable in the skin they are in.

BEFORE (NOT AFTER): A CULTURAL RESET FOR THE BODY POSITIVITY MOVEMENT

In Govan's own words, she explains that as a fat human on the internet, she finds it is virtually impossible to go through her day without coming across side by side photos of someone losing a massive amount of weight with a caption something like: Finally living my best life. It can be extremely hard to find room to accept and celebrate yourself for who you are when you are constantly consuming unsolicited content & ideologies centered around why you shouldn’t. For some reason it is a controversial topic for fat people to live comfortably in their own skin without actively trying to lose weight. We as a whole are constantly surrounded by the idea that you need to change yourself under the guise of improving your ability to find love, success, and even happiness. This narrative against fat people is frankly dehumanizing and the foundation for a multitude of mental health problems and trauma throughout the community.

Before (not after) is an introspective look into Govan’s desire to dismantle the way that fat humans are treated. Although this song is from a personal lens with a specific narrative, at its core this song is for all the people in the world who have felt societal pressure to change things about themselves instead of loving themselves as they are.

“I don’t know about you but I am ready for some fat body stories in pop music! I know it feels hard to exist in a world that has a problem with you accepting yourself but I wrote “before (not after) so that we could block out all their noise. My entire life I have dealt with unsolicited comments about my body. Changing the way I look and losing weight has always been the thing I “had” to do in order to be successful, healthy, and even happy. At the end of the day, I am the person living in this body. I love myself. I'm proud of myself and I want others who look like me or who struggle with their appearance to know that they don’t need anyone else’s validation in order to be all the things they want in life and more. Like I always say your body is perfect because it’s your body.” - Courtney Govan

Listen to our chat with Courtney Govan about her singles Serotonin, Mistake, and the viral TikTok video of the two of us!

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