Some releases have more in common than one would think. At least in my case, there's three 20-something year between pop releases that have overarching themes. This is Part 1 of 3 in this series "The Gospel of FLUKE".
Slight primer: Bonnie McKee came to pop prominence when she began a working relationship with Katy Perry. Between Teenage Dream and Prism, McKee's name appeared in the writing credits of "California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)", "Part of Me" and "Roar". Add in writing credits for "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz and "Hold It Against Me" by Britney Spears and from 2010 to right before June 2013, McKee was riding high and making bank.
Then came her solo career with Epic Records and things went to shit. She had a single "American Girl" release in June of 2013 which ends up on Hot City, but due to it flopping at #87 on the Hot 100, it became clear their working relationship was going to end up in shitsville and not "Hot City". Let McKee tell the story, she was pounding pavement and performing "SLAY" in live settings...all to the label basically telling her "eww this isn't worth promo". By June of 2015 and the release of the EP Bombastic, McKee had effectively said "fuck this shit" to the major label game.
And then TikTok happened. "Oh great, that always ends up well." This time it does.
Over the years since "American Girl" flopping and her parting ways with Epic, a good number of the songs Bonnie wrote for what would become Hot City leaked to the internet. A special connection gay fans of pop music have is an attachment to unreleased records and songs, wondering what things could be like if the label didn't suck or if the artist actually followed through. "Umm how do you know it's gay people-" gurl, no one else was getting excited for an album by Katy Perry's former songwriting partner in crime like gay people were. Bonnie knows this, fully. It's why she even had an openly gay comic feature on a Christmas themed EP of hers named California Winter. Be thankful I'm not mentioning that beyond here because NOPE.
But back to the matter at hand. After some "in-betweengles", notably "Stars in Your Heart" and "Sleepwalker", 2020 saw the world shut down and while some people were making banana bread, taking up hobbies, etc., entertainment industry folk were faced with a lot. For Bonnie, constant mentions of her unreleased album (eventually Hot City) and tracks from that time finally made it her way and she decided to begin legal processes to get enough of the songs to constitute an album proper. While it has since been teased that a "Deluxe" edition of Hot City could be a thing, not everything made the album. As a result, McKee had to fill up space and decided a track with Priyanka, the first ever Canada's Drag Race winner, was the way to go. I'm telling you now, if you yourself enjoy "Snatched", that's great. I'll be over here where the good stuff is.
On June 28th, 2023, the official release gulag for Hot City began with "SLAY" being given a commercial release as intended in 2014. Naturally, when internet attention is turned on for someone, the buzz becomes "could this actually be successful despite an artist being independent and out of the album cycle game for almost two decades?" "SLAY" proves that whatever the album was going to be, it was going to be for the sake of releasing the album (in better ways than that sounds.)
I do not consider "SLAY" as anything more than a solid 8/10, but do understand its charm of bringing Bonnie McKee back into discussions of pop music.
The title track "Hot City" is released on August 11th, 2023. Roughly a month and a half in-between singles despite no major label to placate displeasure at, Bonnie was getting eaten alive in the comments despite her finally releasing music again. For what it's worth "Hot City" was the song she should've released in June instead. When you evoke the 1980s properly but make it your own, that's just a damn good pop release.
On November 3rd, 2023, the 3rd single "Don't Get Mad Get Famous" was released. It being serviced with a music video that horrifyingly reflects a 1:20 runtime, along with the fact it nearly being three months between "Hot City" and this single release, Bonnie again was getting her ass beaten in the comments section. By this point, long suffering McKee-chains (Bonnie stans call themselves Bon-bons but McKee-chains is funnier) point out that she doesn't have consistency to her name with release history. On the album proper, "Don't Get Mad Get Famous" was extended to 2:39 with someone named Sophie Powers. Congratulations to all who celebrated.
Then came 2024, with a 4th single for Hot City and then the album release.
On April 24th, 2024, "Jenny's Got a Boyfriend" is released to some fanfare, while others were wondering what the fuck her release strategy was. Also, if anything album wise was still happening. Legal shit takes forever and a day, plus it was long established that one certain song that shall be mentioned later, was not making the album. As for "Jenny's Got a Boyfriend", it proved to be a wise release as it continued what "Hot City" tried to go in playing into Bonnie's strengths as a blatant "eternally 1980s" pop songstress. Add in rollerskating in the video and there was a recipe for a hit...err, a viral moment on the internet.
However, the fifth single or video release, I lost count...was coming down the pipeline and would represent the album's absolute zenith.
By some mercy kill divine grace for the release gulag, May 31st, 2024 saw the actual commercial release of Bonnie McKee's sophomore effort, Hot City. 16 songs long, 15 of which were over 3:00 in length and the kind of turbo energy radio smashes imagined and reminisced upon...McKee had been given a break in terms of flogging for bad, inconsistent release history.
Out of the 16 songs, 7 of them were singles over the course of 2013 to 2024. That is an astounding thing to think about, especially given that:
- one single was within a major label release ("American Girl")
- one was intended for release but would never see light until 2023 ("SLAY")
- one was released in 2016 as an "in-betweengle" ("Stars in Your Heart")
- one was released in 2018 as an "in-betweengle" ("Sleepwalker")
- two were released in 2023 to wildly different receptions ("Hot City" and DGMGF)
- one was released in 2024, about a month before the album (JGAB)
"Oh that's why you called the singles release a gulag" you say to my response of "no shit". Any major label would take a look at this release history and be horrified at seven attempts to release a single with little if any consistent fanfare.
Then came July 8th, 2024 and the music video release and...not really 5th single but still standalone released video wise, "Forever 21".
This song alone is a motherfucking triumph. Talking about being blackout drunk and wishing you could stay the way you are forever but only for a secretly fucked up reason? Yes please, that's called songwriting. Add in the juvenile, crass yet earnest nature of the video, and "Forever 21" showcases career highs not even some major label pop girls achieve in their careers.
Aside from "Sleepwalker" getting some ass re-release of it for Halloween or something, "Forever 21" would get a standalone single but EP length digital release on February 21st, 2025...SEVEN MONTHS after the video. Never mind that that makes "Forever 21" single number EIGHT, and an album POST-RELEASE. (please note, "Electric Heaven" wound up getting a special single remix/different version released on August 1st, 2025 with Kiesza on it...meaning this was single number NINE. After eight...NINE attempts at releasing a single from Hot City. And it being a SECOND POST-RELEASE.)
Between release day and now, I cannot believe I was and am living for NINE of these songs. Being proven wrong can be fun sometimes! How was I proven wrong? Well, that was admittedly a bias I overcame once I was reminded that she wrote for Katy Perry. Sometimes it sure as shit sounds like she did, but then in the midst of the album, it becomes clear Bonnie McKee has vocal ability. Not a lot of it, but enough to where a certain punch or vocal muscularity is added to the songs.
The highlights from the album, "Hot City", "Jenny's Got a Boyfriend", "Show You Mine", "I Wanna Call You", "Forever 21", "Electric Heaven", "Sleepwalker", "Rewind Your Heart" and "Stars in Your Heart", prove why she was in demand for the years she was because when it's right it's right. Certain songwriters have it in them to get it absolutely right even if there's a lot they got wrong in their time as a songwriter.
Hot City would leave me impressed with Bonnie's rounded and disciplined tone...even on songs like "Don't Get Mad, Get Famous" and "Worst in Me" where I was merely whelmed. I did not expect her to have vocal chops and commitment like that. Sure, these could have gone to Katy Perry had she or her team paid Bonnie for them in 2014/2015, but the pop landscape was changing. There's a time from 2009 to 2015 known as "The EDM Dance Club Boom", where any dancepop that was labeled "Club"/"EDM"/"Dance" was released to compete with Lady Gaga who in 2009 began making the pop game her bitch.
However, Hot City ending up released in 2024 proved to be for the best. Yeah then and now, she knew she wasn't even going Triple Expired Bus Pass sales wise.
In the time between 2015 and 2024, pop went through some dour, rough shit before 2020 was supposed to be a pop resurgence via the "we-want-disco-but-not-actually-disco-just-disco-inspired-pop" route. But then the world shut down. From 2021 or 2022-2024, things began becoming retro all over again. Every motherfucking social media page with a hint of pop culture to it, began doing throwbacks to songs released from the 00s all the way to the 2010s.
Bonnie became aware of what this almost "lost album" meant to the gay audience and pop listeners who understood her "eternally 1980s" realness. However, on the album there is one song she gets absolutely wrong, in "Snatched". The album plays as a soundtrack to one of those "big everywhere the year it released" movies from the late 80s and early 90s (depending on when your barometer for pop culture demarcates time.) "Snatched" is basically a slap in the face of listeners who were subjected to a not totally pinkwashed but far too clashing 2010s club bitchtrack.
The energy of "Snatched" and similar songs...notably a song "Snatched" sucks as much as, "10 out of 10" by Oliver Heldens and Kylie Minogue off of the 2023 album Tension...kind of invoke the "yaaaaaaas queen" kind of t-shirts big box retailers once had on display in their stores. In other words, it's entirely reductive and beneath the artists.
This especially feels like a kick in the teeth when considering the track that should end up on the deluxe version of Hot City whenever the fuck Bonnie gets to that and stops with the goddamn inconsistent release patterns. The song in question is the "lost track" of "Somebody's Gonna Get Hurt".
"Somebody's Gonna Get Hurt" is the kind of ballad infused pop song a bitch would fight to the death to have on their album. Add in a thunderdome level conflict of releasing it as a single before they get to, and this is the song any pop singer worth their salt should be paying Bonnie McKee...and Greg Kurstin, top fucking dollar for. He comes up because if I recall correctly, he produced the song with pop gloss. Bonnie wrote it and can easily recreate it but last I remember, she posted to Instagram asking her fans which rewrite of the song worked better for the fabled deluxe edition.
However, in remembering the overall highlights of Hot City, there's a level of fun to be had that on the release and to the listener is worth revisiting.
It's not a perfect album, but it's one that makes a case that sometimes; it's the essentials of airtight melodies, ruthlessly efficient songwriting and an in your face attitude that makes for a pleasurable release. Also a song like "Stars in Your Heart" is a ballad done right and in 2016 and 2024 to now, I hope Bonnathan here is proud of herself for that song. It's fucking beautiful.
Hot City doesn't promise a long time, but if you can look past most of the glitter that isn't gold, you'll be in for a good time.
Highlights:
- "Forever 21" 🏆🥇
- "I Wanna Call You"
- "Stars in Your Heart" 💎
- "Show You Mine"
- "Sleepwalker"
- "Electric Heaven"
- "Hot City"
- "Rewind Your Heart"
- "Jenny's Got a Boyfriend"
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