Sharp Notes Monday: ‘You Don’t Own Me’

By Jandoli Institute on August 22, 2022 • ( 0 )

While our Sharp Notes, Sharp Thoughts music and social media project is on hiatus for the summer, we are sharing a song every Monday to start your week.

“You Don’t Own Me,” a hit single for Leslie Gore when she was just 17, was a sharp departure from the love songs that populated the airwaves in 1963. It was a song in which a woman boldly declared her independence, and it emerged as a feminist anthem that has been covered numerous times.

Although the song is about a romantic relationship, the lyrics could just easily apply to a modern-day woman such as Rep. Liz Cheney, who lost a primary election last week after bucking members of her own political party:

I’m free and I love to be free
To live my life the way I want
To say and do whatever I please
And don’t tell me what to do
Oh, don’t tell me what to say

Enjoy this cover version of “You Don’t Own Me” that Australian singer and songwriter Saygrace and American rapper G-Eazy recorded in 2015. Then take a look at the original by Leslie Gore.