I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time waiting for somebody to show up and fix shit I was perfectly capable of fixing myself. A boyfriend was going to make me feel secure. The right boss was going to recognize my brilliance and hand me the life I deserved. Some magical future version of me was going to wake up with better judgment and a savings account. Basically, I was Rapunzel with a vodka soda, sitting in the fucking tower wondering why nobody had arrived with transportation. RAMI understands the fantasy on Save Myself. She spent a painful stretch of her life searching for somebody or something to rescue her before realizing the person she was waiting for was already in the room. Or tower. Turns out Prince Charming was wearing her shoes the whole time.
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The cinematic pop production understands that a rescue fantasy deserves some fucking drama. Written by Jackie’s Boy and Quiet Girl, with Jackie’s Boy producing and Quiet Girl co-producing, Save Myself begins quietly enough that RAMI sounds stranded inside her own story before the arrangement starts opening around her. Recorded at Nashville’s Blackbird Studio, it has the sweep of the fairytale she’s about to rewrite while keeping her vocal close enough that the loneliness still feels personal. When she sings “Lived in the pain cut by a thousand razor blades,” I understand why she wanted somebody to come get her. I’ve had nights when personal growth could fuck all the way off because what I wanted was somebody to pull up outside and say, “Get in, I’ve got you.” RAMI knows that craving. Sometimes being rescued sounds a hell of a lot better than discovering another opportunity for character development.
Then RAMI gives us the line that makes the whole song work. She’s “all alone in a tower big and tall,” waiting for rescue until she realizes “I was the prince here after all.” Fuck yes. Every girl raised on fairytales deserves this particular plot twist because we were sold an impressive amount of bullshit about waiting for somebody else to arrive. I’ve stared at my phone hoping one specific person would somehow sense I was falling apart and call with the perfect thing to say, as though men suddenly develop emotional telepathy when a woman needs them most. RAMI finally looks around the tower and realizes she can get her own ass downstairs. The horse is waiting, and she apparently had the keys the whole fucking time.
RAMI says the song came from a period when she felt lost and kept searching for someone or something to save her until she realized the person she was waiting for had to be herself. That makes “Found out I’m strong / Got me through moments alone” hit me somewhere painfully familiar. There’s a shitty little moment after you survive something alone when you realize, wait, I fucking did that. Nobody swooped in and carried me out. You start remembering all those nights you were convinced you couldn’t handle one more thing, and suddenly there you are on the other side wondering why you ever handed somebody else the cape. RAMI has figured out who the prince is, and girlfriend, she looks pretty fucking good in the outfit.
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Save Myself arrives while RAMI is doing some real-life moving of her own. She began her professional career at 17 in Hungary after signing with Warner Music Hungary / mTon before eventually taking her music to Milan. She’s now based in Nashville, where this new chapter centers on cinematic pop and emotional storytelling. There’s something deliciously appropriate about planting yourself in a new city and releasing a song whose central revelation is that nobody needs to arrive and start your life for you. RAMI already got herself here. Prince Charming can meet her in Nashville if he manages to keep up.
I still enjoy the occasional Prince Charming fantasy. Mine has excellent hair, emotional availability and enough upper-body strength to deal with my carry-on. I’ve simply stopped leaving the fucking door locked until he gets here. RAMI gets herself out of the tower on Save Myself, and the best part is realizing she was holding the key the entire time.
