Grammy award-winning artist Emily Bear returns with “God Forbid a Girl Gets Used to This”

 Grammy and Emmy award-winning singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist prodigy Emily Bear makes her highly anticipated return as a recording artist with her brand-new single ‘God Forbid a Girl Gets Used To This’, out today. A musical prodigy who was taken under the wing of Quincy Jones at the age of eight, she has performed with everyone from Beyoncé to Meghan Trainor. Finding her own voice and marking her first solo release in almost a decade, the song signals an exciting new chapter for the 25 year-old.

Produced by Emily Bear and Julian Dobson (Mark Ronson, RAYE), ‘God Forbid a Girl Gets Used to This’ blends upbeat jazz and soul sounds with raw, honest songwriting. Anchored by the poignant refrain “I got trouble with happiness”, the song confronts the paradox of finding genuine love and the lingering anxiety of expecting it all to go wrong.

Emily says "We hear all these stories about how love makes you fearless, love conquers all, and repeat stories of people doing these wildly heroic things in the name of it.

“But no one really talks about what happens when you finally experience that fated feeling. Suddenly, there’s something you’re terrified to lose. And instead of becoming fearless, there’s a large part of you that becomes the most cowardly version of yourself, bracing for it to disappear simply because you don’t believe you deserve something this beautiful.

“This song lives somewhere in that fear, and in the vulnerability of letting yourself start to believe that maybe a good thing can just be a good thing.

“I’m equal parts thrilled and terrified to start putting these songs out into the world, play them live, and let them belong to people other than me.

“So, very appropriately and painfully on the nose, God Forbid A Girl Gets Used To This :)”

Emily Bear’s musical vocabulary is impressively broad and ‘God Forbid a Girl Gets Used to This’ epitomises that. Trained in classical piano from the age of four, she studied jazz at the same time and was mentored and managed by Quincy Jones from an early age. His first recommendations to her were Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, and touring with his circle shaped how she plays and writes. Her heart lies in the 1970s: Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Minnie Riperton and the wider world of soul and jazz, while she voices the concerns of her generation. She also loves an orchestra and the lyrical directness of great songwriters like Carole King. Stevie Wonder is her north star: sophisticated enough to thrill jazz obsessives but warm enough to win over anyone. Emily composes for film and musicals, further enhancing her palette. Now, she is finding her own voice.

The track is the first song to be released from her upcoming debut album, which she is currently recording in Mark Ronson’s studio in New York and comes hot off the heels of two sold-out performances at the newly-opened jazz club, Blue Note London. Signalling a return to herself, Emily has spent the better part of a decade bringing other people’s stories to life, scoring for global stage and screen productions. In 2022, she won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album for her work on The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical. Emily is part of the composing collective for Tony Gilroy's upcoming BEHEMOTH! starring Pedro Pascal. She is also due to appear on BBC’s ‘Later...with Jools Holland’ next month.

‘God Forbid a Girl Gets Used To This’ is available to stream now.

About Emily Bear

Grammy and Emmy Award–winning composer, producer, pianist, and chart-topping recording artist Emily Bear has been redefining what it means to be a modern musician since her professional debut at age five. Bear’s creative work spans jazz, classical, pop, film, television, and musical theater, establishing her as an incredibly versatile and in-demand creator.

Bear made history as the youngest composer to write the soundtrack for a Disney animated feature film, for the worldwide box office success Moana 2. Bear is also the youngest artist to win a GRAMMY award for Best Musical Theatre album, acting as both composer and sole producer for The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Album. Mentored & produced by the legendary Quincy Jones, Bear has been honored by the Songwriters Hall of Fame and received an Emmy Award for Best original score.

She has performed on some of the world’s most iconic stages including Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Montreux Jazz Festival, was the featured pianist on Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour, and was featured on Forbes’ prestigious ‘30 Under 30’ list.

Currently, Bear is one of nine co-composers including Alan Silvestri, James Newton Howard, and Michael Giacchino contributing to the score for Tony Gilroy's upcoming Searchlight Pictures feature film drama, Behemoth!, starring Pedro Pascal. She continues to collaborate on major projects for film, television, and Broadway, while readying new music for her highly anticipated Sony Music Masterworks debut recording.