Stephanie Poetri creates the playlist of her life.
From One Direction and Jonas Brothers fan-favorites to the poetic mastery of Kendrick Lamar, this boy-band stan turned popstar shares some of her favorite songs to give fans an idea of where she's coming from when she writes her own lyrics.
[clapping]- Ha, renegade, renegade.Hey, Teen Vogue, I'm Stephanie Poetriand this is The Playlist of My Life.[upbeat music][laughs] Oh my, I haven'twritten in a long time.My first song is "Where IsThe Love" by Black Eyed Peasand it's because in elementary school,every day I used to go to school,and there was no Bluetoothat this time, okay,we had to play from albums,and we had the Black Eyed Peas albumand "Where Is The Love"just stood out to mebecause it was like singing, rapping.I was like, whoa, this is really cool.But also the lyrics areso important even today.I feel like if someone wrote it today,I'd be like, it makes sense.The opening line, "What'swrong with the world, Mama"People livin' likethey ain't got no mama."♪ What's wrong with the world, Mama ♪♪ People livin' likethey ain't got no mama ♪- That like, punched me in the face.I was like, yo, oh my gosh.And I don't know, I think it's just likeone of those songs that I feelhas so much emotion and importance in it,and it will always be one of my favorite.Bam, "Too Little Too Late" by Jojo.I remember just like, blastingthis on my car stereo,and I think, when you're a childyou don't really know thatyou're bad at singing,so I just kept going.In this song she wentlike, crazy, like her runs,and I think that's one of the reasonsthat made me kind of want tostart learning how to singbecause I recorded myself,and I sounded so bad.So I was like, okay, maybe I should startpracticing how to sing like Jojo.♪ It's just too little too late ♪♪ A little too wrong ♪- So the reason why "Too Little Too Late"is my favorite out ofher whole discographyis more personal reason,and it's because before growing upI had a USB with like top ten compilationthat people would just make,and one of them was "Too Little Too Late."And I kept repeating"Too Little Too Late,"and then ultimately, Ijust had that one USB,not for the other song,but for this one song.And yeah, I just think Jojois such an amazing singer,and I really look up to her as a musician.My next song is "BlackKeys" by Jonas Brothers.First of all, we stan the Jonas Brothers.I'm so happy that they got back together.Their new song lit.But the "Black Keys."This specific song stoodout to me because [laughs]I was in elementary school,and I listened to this song,and I have no love life,and it made me cry.That's how good andemotional this song was.And I just remember like,in my room in the dark,I would go home and I'd play it,and I'd be like, "When will Nick love me?"But yeah.This song has a lot of good lyrics,but just the whole chorus, it goes like,[singing] "And the black keysnever looked so beautiful"and a perfect rainbow."♪ Black keys never looked so beautiful ♪- The first time I saw JonasBrothers was on Camp Rock.Iconic.
I love that movie.
[laughs]And I just think JonasBrothers has a certain kind oflike, angst from more like punk rock,but in a very pop manner.Which I think is really cool,and I also just thoughtthey all look good,they all play good,what is not to love?One Direction, AKA, my favorite.In like, middle school,I was so into them.I had a whole blog dedicated to them.That's how much I love One Direction.And this was my favoritesong by them of all time.It's called "More Than This."I think it was the thirdtrack of their first album.And I think One Direction is just --Like y'know a lot of peoplewere really into Justin Bieber?I was really into One Direction,and I was just like, in love.
[laughs]I used to watch a lot oftheir performance videos,and I remember, they werein this really small venue.And they were performingtheir first album,and every time theyperformed "More Than This,"the whole crowd wouldsing with them together.And it just made me feelso nostalgic and sad,but like, in a good way.[singing] "When he opens his arms and"holds you close tonight,it just don't feel right."'Cause I can love you more than this."♪ When he opens his arms andholds you close tonight ♪♪ It just won't feel right ♪- Oh I'm so sad now justthinking about it.
[laughs]The next is "PoeticJustice" by Kendrick Lamar,and to this day, he stillis my favorite rapper,and to this day, I can still rap the wholeMad City album.
[laughs]But "Poetic Justice"is my favorite by him.And I think just like,lyrically, like his mind.You know?
Like, whoa.And this song specificallyreally showcases talent.I'm gonna butcher this but,[rapping] "Poetic justice, poetic justice"If I told you that a flower bloomed"in a dark room, would you trust it?"♪ Poetic justice ♪♪ If I told you that a flowerbloomed in a dark room ♪♪ Would you trust it ♪- I literally just butcheredit, but that's okay.You know, it's appreciation.
[laughs]So, this next song iscalled "Matamu" by Titi DJ.Titi DJ is my mom, andshe's a singer in Indonesia,and she's like, so cool, I love her.We stan.It's my favorite song by my mom.And it means your eyes.And I have a theorythat it's about my dad,but we won't talk about it.
[laughs]So I chose this song.A lot of it is also becauseof the lyrics and the melody.It has a great top line that I thinkalso my dad might havehelped making, but it's like,[imitating beat of the song]["Matamu" by Titi DJ]It was really hard to choose thisbecause she has a great discography.I just think she's like an amazing singer,and she has a very coolvoice, in my opinion.I grew up wishing I had her voice,but I have a kind of softer version of it,and so I kind of had towork through those issuesby myself because I was so jealous of her.But honestly I think she's amazing,and she also did a great job atraising four kids all by herself,so she's super awesome.I think it's about my dad becausemy dad has really beautiful gray eyesthat kind of turn blue depending onwhere he stands in the room and stuff.I feel like my mom mighthave met him and was like,"Who dis with the blue eyes?"So that's why I think.I'll need to check on this.I'll let you know if it'strue or not.
[laughs]My next song is "Love Scenario,"and it's sung by iKon, AKA, one of thegreatest K-pop groups of all time.In my opinion.I really like this song A:because I watched them live at theAsian Games in Indonesia lastyear, and it was just insane.The whole crowd was singing with them,and I don't know, I just think they have acertain kind of like,swag about them, y'know?I really like this songspecifically becauseit does a really goodjob of what I try to do,which is mix electronic with like,more natural kind of sounding instruments.They have like a pianosound that keeps repeating,but then the beats arevery like, electronic,which I love.The chorus itself is like, just so catchy.It's like [imitates beat of song]"Love scenario." [imitates beat of song]There's a fan chant,it's like a whole thing.♪ [Sings in Korean] ♪♪ Love Scenario ♪- The reason why I feel like iKondoes a great job with kind of settingthem apart from other K-pop groups,is they do a really good job ofusing more rock influences.In terms of just like, theirinstrumentals and production.I also think it's cool theyproduce their own stuff,and I genuinely think "Love Scenario" wasthe song of the year last year.Change my mind.Last one is "I Lost a Friend" by Finneas.And it's because it's myfavorite song right now,and he's also one of myfavorite musicians right now.We love him.He does a great job of justmaking you feel emotionsthat you didn't know you had.And "I Lost a Friend" is a great songespecially because I kind ofam going through that too.Moving away from my like,Indonesia, where I grew up,you kind of start losing contact witha lot of your good friends,and it kind of relates back tohow he felt when he wrote this.I saw an interview where he was like,"Yeah, why am I writing love songs when"all I'm sad about islosing my best friend?"And I was like, "Whoa, that's me."There's like, two partsthat I think are veryspecific to me, like,that stands out to me.The first one is just theverse and how well he wrote it.It's like, "I lost afriend like keys in a sofa,"Like a wallet in a backseat."So it's very much like, for people whodidn't go through that, oh it's like,losing things that are important to you.But also in the chorus it's like,[singing] "'Cause you made a littletoo much money to be twenty and sad."♪ 'Cause you made alittle too much money ♪♪ To be twenty and sad.
♪- And I feel that way sometimes.I have so many goodthings going on with me,but like, so people arelike, "So why are you sad?"Sometimes I feel like, sowhy am I sad, honestly?Because I have so many goodthings going on with me,but it's also like, just becausegood things are happening to you,doesn't undermine all the bad things,and it's okay to feel certain emotionsdespite all the other things happening.So that's my playlist.I know it's a little like, everywhere.Y'know, there's really sadsongs like "Black Keys,""More Than This," and "I Lost a Friend,"and there's like, bangers, like,"Where is the Love" and"Too Little Too Late."But I think it does a really greatway of kind of showing where I come fromwhen I write songs andalso who I am as a person.So yeah, I hope to all thepeople who were interested.I'm Stephanie Poetri, and thisis The Playlist of My Life.Thank you so much, Teen Vogue.