The Rebirth of Bishop Briggs

[📷: Ashley Osborn]

Bishop Briggs has experienced a lifetime’s worth of milestones over the span of two years. Following trying times, her rebirth – a new zest for life – commences.   

Written by Bonita Alford

Bishop Briggs has been going through some things. She experienced the devastating loss of her soulmate/sister Kate, marriage, performing at Coachella six months pregnant, and giving birth to her first child. A lifetime’s worth of milestones over the span of two years.

Then on May 17, 2023, she won season 9 of 📺 The Masked Singer. Her win was both a blessing and a curse. She gained new fans but also suffered backlash on her social media accounts from those who felt other contestants were “robbed” (which happens every season).  She also received numerous comments of “who is she?”

How could someone with her amount of success still be unknown to so many? Well, it’s complicated.  First, Bishop Briggs is her stage name; her real name is Sarah Grace McLaughlin. Out of respect for the Canadian singer/songwriter with a similar name, she calls herself Bishop Briggs professionally. Another facet of her identity crisis involves 🎙️ P!nk, who frequently covers Bishop’s iconic song “River”,  leading many to incorrectly assume P!nk wrote the song. This led Bishop to post a tongue-in-cheek TikTok asking P!nk to stop singing her song. That video has three million views.

@bishopbriggs

gotta do it 🌝

♬ My Heart Will Go On (Titanic) – Maliheh Saeedi & Faraz Taali

A large share of the “who is she” comments were from people who truly never heard of her or didn’t know she wrote/sings “River.”  A big hit in 2016, “River” had a renaissance in 2018 when it was used extensively in 📺 Meteor Garden, a popular Korean TV drama. It also inspired a viral TikTok dance trend, generating 680 million views to date.

But a lot of the “who is she” remarks were deliberately cruel – made by trolls who sought out her social media accounts just to leave snarky “who are you” posts after her Masked Singer win. Bishop acknowledged the backlash in a tweet that simply said, “The internet is intense.”

THE INTERNET IS INTENSE 😅

— Bishop Briggs (@bishopbriggs) May 18, 2023

Bishop’s triumph as Medusa on The Masked Singer could be a metaphor for the rebirth of her music career.  She signed with Arista Records in 2022, and her new EP, 💿 When Everything Went Dark comes out June 23, 2023. It has six songs, three of which have been released.

Her new song 🎵 “Baggage,” which is streaming now, is an up-tempo ode about a heavy subject: the emotional baggage we all carry, and how we hide it from everyone, including ourselves. This inner turmoil is perfectly summed up in the line “My enemy’s on the inside.” Beginning with a few nostalgic notes on an accordion, it talks about the need to acknowledge negative feelings so you can learn how to cope with them. She previously shared a TikTok video about being very good at hiding her depression over the loss of her sister until the pain became too unbearable. She went home and told her husband she needed help.

The EP’s title comes from a line in the aching, soul-stirring 🎵 “High Water,”  the fifth song on the EP. 🎵 “High Water” is about Bishop’s anguish over the loss of her sister, how Kate was her strength through hard times, and how their roles reversed when Kate became ill.  She plaintively sings,  “I hate that I lost you, when I’m not lost anymore.” Even though it was inspired by tragedy, there’s comfort to be taken as well.

Which is a good segue to 🎵 “Superhuman.” This song starts as a lullaby to her newborn child with soft vocals and piano only, adding on layers of more instruments along the way to a crescendo of sound as it turns into an anthem about all the possibilities ahead for the both of them.

A snippet of 🎵 “Reborn,” the EP’s first song, was shared on Bishop’s social media. Over a bouncy arrangement with swirling background vocals, she gleefully sings about fading scars to joyfully exclaim “I have been reborn.” 🎵 “Bad” and 🎵 “Cherry On Top” (tracks 3 and 4) round out the EP.  Bishop recently dropped clips of her singing both songs on social media.

Overall, these tracks take us along her journey of self-discovery towards a new-found zest for life.

Bishop Briggs co-headlines with 🎙️ MisterWives on the “Don’t Look Down” tour in North America this fall.

 [📷: Arista, Ashley Osborn]

This post was contributed by Bonita Alford. Alford is a writer in Los Angeles. She has a film degree from SMU and co-wrote an episode of “Girlfriends.” She has 4 cats who keep trying to go viral on TikTok.