So I was getting ready last Saturday, full glam, feeling like an actual problem, when his name popped up on my phone. And I just… didn’t. I looked at it, looked back at myself in the mirror, and put the phone face-down like he never even existed with no fucks to give. I decided I had somewhere better to be and someone better to be, and that was the whole conversation. I told my friend about it later and she sent me Nina Browwn’s ‘Unavailable’ with zero additional context and honestly? I felt so fucking called out I had to sit down. Because Nina packaged a whole philosophy into three minutes and somehow made it sound this good. You stop being available to the guys who drain you and the noise they bring that contributes absolutely nothing, and suddenly getting ready on a Saturday night feels like reclaiming something. That’s the energy this track is running on and it’s intoxicating.
This track is the musical equivalent of leaving your phone face-down on purpose. She saw the notification and made a choice. The single blends smooth R&B with pop and a little reggae underneath, and it sounds like the moment you finally stop answering calls from guys who never had anything good to say anyway. Nina said it herself: it’s about being unavailable to anyone who brings “no real value” into her life. That’s a fucking lifestyle. He’s blocked. She’s somewhere better doing something way more fun and she doesn’t give a shit who’s still waiting on read. The track is self-possessed in a way that makes you want to put your phone on Do Not Disturb and never take it off. God I love when women stop being polite and start being selective.
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That reggae undertow runs slow and deliberate, and it matches where Nina’s head is at when she opens with “I’ve heard this story one too many times / You’re well rehearsed you say it line by line / You’re a smooth smooth criminal / Think you’re so original” and I actually laughed out loud because I have sat across from this exact man at a bar and watched him run his whole routine. He thinks he invented this. She’s already filing it under “been there.” She’s laughing, which lands harder than fury ever could.
She clocked his whole routine and decided it was funny. “So I’m gonna laugh about it / I don’t have time for tactics / I’m in a good place, unphased, yeah / I’m not gonna die without it / I’ve had years of practice / You’re all just distractions” and that “I’m not gonna die without it” is doing something to me. She’s not devastated. She’s not even mildly inconvenienced. She has had years of practice weeding out exactly this type and at this point it’s almost boring. The laugh is what kills it.
Oh, and that chorus. “There’s a reason they’re my exes / I trust my senses / There’s a reason I’m expensive / They love my presence / Then they slip into obsession / And I can’t help it / Don’t get defensive / I’m just unavailable” I need a minute. “There’s a reason I’m expensive.” Said like it’s barely worth mentioning. Men spiral into obsession over her and she’s watching it happen from a very comfortable distance, genuinely unbothered. That “don’t get defensive” does heavy lifting because she’s aware of the effect she has and she’s not performing it. That self-awareness is twice as sexy as anything she could have said out loud.
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Verse two is where she gets personal with it. “I took my time to get my life in check / I’m hyper focused ready for what’s next / I’m not gonna throw it away / I’ve learned from all my mistakes / Now I’m here to stay” she did the work. She processed the mess and built something from it. Now she’s protecting it which means she’s not about to hand any of it over to some guy who can’t keep up. “Hyper focused.” I felt that. This is a woman who knows what she’s building.
Nina has been building toward this her whole life and it shows. She grew up in Zagreb before Toronto claimed her and by 10 she was already deep in multiple instruments. At 16 she added classical opera voice training and never stopped which explains why her three and a half octave range does things most singers couldn’t touch on their best day. Her sound pulls from R&B, pop, and reggae in a way that feels effortless rather than calculated, and her influences are the women who made everyone else take notes: Mariah, Whitney, Alicia Keys, Adele. Music runs in her family, too. Her grandmother had a voice beautiful enough to get invited onto Zagreb radio in the 1950s and Nina has been chasing that same thing since she wrote her first complete song at 12 and performed it at her school talent show. She was terrified until she looked out at the crowd and felt it click. Everything she writes comes from that same place. “Many of my songs come from personal experiences I’ve lived through,” she says. “It’s the best way for me to connect with the music and for people to connect with the message, because it’s something real.” Zero interest in writing anything that isn’t true. Yeah, she’s going to be fucking fine.
That Saturday I went out, full face still intact, feeling like the main character in a movie he doesn’t have a role in. Danced with whoever I wanted. Laughed louder than I needed to. At some point my friend leaned over and said “he texted me asking where you were” and I literally cackled. Came home at 3am, heels in hand, not a single regret on my body. Three unread texts waiting. I didn’t even open them. Just put my phone face-down, the same way I started the night, and fell asleep feeling like a goddamn problem. Nina’s whole point is that unavailable isn’t a mood. It’s a standard. Once you set it, going back feels insane. He can wait on read forever. I’ve got better shit to do.
