You’d think a girl like me—confident, got my shit together, never short on options—wouldn’t be the type to check her phone every five minutes waiting for some guy to text back. But here we are. The guy himself? Barely relevant. When he’d text back, the relief scared me. That’s how badly I needed it. When he didn’t, I’d message other guys just to get the feeling from somewhere. My friends don’t know about this part of me. Out loud it sounds pathetic and it’s not who they think I am. “Needed” came on during one of these moments—me holding my phone, waiting for a text to make me feel real—and the first verse made me stop everything. Scharliina was singing about the exact thing I was doing. She bypassed all the romantic stuff and named the real addiction: needing to be wanted so badly it destroys you from the inside.
This track doesn’t sugarcoat the ugly truth about ego and emotional dependence. It’s SCHAR—Scharliina’s darker alter ego—dragging us through the psychology of craving attention like it’s oxygen. The production is sleek electronic pop with this hypnotic rhythm—it literally sounds like scrolling through DMs at 2am. Her vocals hit different though. Her voice cuts through in a way that won’t let you just keep scrolling. You have to stop and sit with it.
I don’t know what I am feeling / All these demons up in my head opens the track, and already she’s admitting she’s tangled in the chaos of needing something she knows is bad for her. I’m so doubtful and I need it / Validation is my own gear—that line hits different because she’s calling validation her gear, like it’s the drug she’s dependent on to function. She’s naming the addiction before we even get to the hook.
Then she admits Now my egos coming forth and / I hate I get lost in you but, / All my ego needs is you cos, cos yeah. The way she repeats “cos, cos yeah” sounds like she’s trailing off, like she caught herself saying too much. She hates getting lost in someone else. But her ego needs to be seen and wanted, and that need wins every time.
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The chorus just lays it out: I need your attention 24/7 / So I don’t think twice bout going in my DM:S / To all of the strangers that send me love poems. She’s admitting to scrolling through messages from people she doesn’t know, people she’ll never actually meet, but needing their words anyway. Can’t touch it but I need it / I need to be needed—you can’t physically hold digital attention, but you still crave it like crazy. Digital attention becomes the drug because it’s endless, renewable, always just one scroll away.
Can you feel it / Couldn’t dream it / Wouldn’t see it / Hiding my feelings / To keep in the PJ:s / I know it’s a secret / But I’m obsessed with the feeling / Of being needed. This part fucking wrecks me. She’s in her pajamas hiding this whole thing while posting confident shit online. Everyone sees one version of her. The real version is sitting alone obsessing over whether someone needs her.
The repetition of Needed / Needed / Needed / Yeah baby / I need it / To feel that I’m needed drives home the compulsion. The repetition strips away any elegance and leaves you with something desperate and raw, the way actual need sounds when you’re spiraling.
Verse two is where she turns on herself. She’s admitting the addiction turns her mean. She lashes out, then blames him for it. I have so much pressure so much to loose / I don’t like me, when I’m with you, you and someone else is in the room—jealousy takes over when there’s competition. She doesn’t recognize herself when she has to share his attention with anyone else.
But when were all alone, I get all so consumed is the flip side. When it’s just the two of them the meanness vanishes. She gets completely consumed by finally having what she needs. Then I’m so / Addicted addicted to you—she repeats “addicted” because saying it once doesn’t cover how far gone she is.
The bridge is where she tries to make sense of it all: I’m losing myself inside your eyes / And I’m blaming me and my scars every time / I haven’t healed any scars I cannot hide. She’s connecting her need for validation to unhealed trauma, to scars she’s been carrying that make her seek external proof of her worth. I kinda fear all the things that I do that will hurt me / But I know that I will survive—she knows the behavior is self-destructive, knows she’s hurting herself by chasing this high, but she also knows she’s resilient enough to survive it.
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I will find ways to make new ways and thriving / But I still think I need more of your time / So Im telling you, telling you now. She literally says she knows she’ll survive, that she’s gonna find new ways to thrive, and then immediately asks for more of his time. Like, bestie is out here talking about her healing journey while still begging for attention. That’s the fucked up part. You can see the whole trap laid out in front of you and still walk right into it.
Scharliina brings serious context to this track. At 24, Scharliina is a Top charting artist, songwriter, producer, actress, and model who starred in “The Abyss”—the number one Netflix movie globally. She founded the Little Girl Project—a nonprofit fighting child sexual abuse—and performed “Pieces of Me” for survivors at the European Parliament back in December 2023. When it comes to her music though, she’s pulling from her own shit. “Needed” lands because she actually knows what it feels like to work on yourself while simultaneously needing validation so badly it destroys you.
“Needed” is the second track off her album EGO which she released under her SCHAR persona—think bold, empowered, dark feminine energy. The production is hypnotic and the lyrics won’t let you ignore the shit you’ve been avoiding about yourself. She’s saying what we all know but won’t admit: we’re addicted to being wanted and it’s fucking us up.
This is the anthem for everyone who posts thirst traps while crying in bed and curates their life for strangers and calls it being social. The loneliness gets dressed up as confidence. The obsession looks like seduction. We’re all performing and pretending it counts as actual connection. Scharliina made the mirror and we just have to be brave enough to look at it.
Stream “Needed” and sit with how uncomfortable it makes you feel. That’s the whole damn point.
