Dijellza Ajdini Celebrates Love’s Breathless Moments in Dance-Pop Gem “Pink Jacket”
(Chapel Hill, NC)
For Dijellza Ajdini, music has always been an empowering force, one that lets her encapsulate the feeling of a moment into a three-minute pop song. In her new single, “Pink Jacket,” a romantic memory becomes a bouncy, breathless, seeming effortless piece of ear candy.
Set to a beat both sensual and urgent, “Pink Jacket” makes use of cello accents, twinkling flourishes, and moments when the beat drops out, leaving only Ajdini’s voice. In the space of one song, she showcases multiple facets of her vocals, alternately sounding breezy, ethereal, or just like one friend speaking to another. The lyrics celebrate a turn towards hopefulness. “I was never the type to believe in love; I was always the type to push and shove,” she sings. The rest of the lyrics celebrate snapshots of an encounter—“hands on my waist, hands on my face,” she repeats, building anticipation for what’s to come.
“I wrote the song in August of last year. It’s about a boy. He had hazel eyes and always wore a pink jacket. The song channels how I felt in the moment–very loved and appreciated for who I was,” she remembers. Though Ajdini often co-writes with her brother, Ben, she wrote “Pink Jacket” by herself, feeling an instant connection with the song.
The song’s video, inspired by Harry Potter, centers around a magic potion. The fanciful nature seems right at home with the song’s theme of being under the spell of love. Set in a high school classroom, the video also features dialogue written by Adjini’s brother, as well as the appearance of a mystery woman.
Growing up surrounded by music in her Albanian family, the singer gravitated towards mainstream pop artists from a young age. The music of Selena Gomez, in particular, was another kind of magic potion. Ajdini grew up with Gomez’s music, saying, “Since I was a child, I’ve always felt connected with and inspired by her music. She has this song called ‘Who Says’ that I used to sing when I was seven and pretending to be onstage. She made powerful speeches about positive things. I was a child and they still affected me and lifted me up.”
Those role models helped carry Ajdini here, making highly relatable pop-R&B music with an uplifting spirit. “The one message I always try to spread is to love yourself first. Beauty is within all of us, but beautiful things take time to blossom,” she says. The metaphor of transformation is especially close to her as she prepares to release her debut EP, Butterflies, out May 17, 2021.
To the singer, butterflies represent freedom as well metamorphosis, symbolism which inspired her EP. “It’s about letting go. I conceptualize each song as a butterfly. I take the baggage and trauma I’ve had and transform it into a butterfly,” she explains, adding a touch of serendipity to the theme. “I was on set of a video. The director noticed that a monarch butterfly flew in as we were talking about the EP.”
“Pink Jacket” will be available on all streaming platforms on May 10, 2021.
Butterflies will be out on May 17, 2021.
