People Are Crying Over The Emotional Lyrics To The 'Sunflower’ Song In ‘Sierra Burgess’

10 September 2018, 20:13

Katie Louise Smith

By Katie Louise Smith

The song was sung by Shannon Purser and co-written by Leland, Troye Sivan, Allie X, Bram Incore and film writer Lindsey Beer.

If you've watched Netflix's new teen movie Sierra Burgess Is A Loser then you'll probably still be walking around with Sierra's stunning "Sunflower" song in your head.

The film, which stars Shannon Purser from Stranger Things and Riverdale, and To All The Boys I've Loved Before's Noah Centineo dropped to mix reviews on Friday September 6 (it's copping quite a bit of backlash) but people can't stop raving about the song that is performed by Purser at the end of the film.

The film has a phenomenal soundtrack but the standout track is an original song sung by Purser herself called "Sunflower."

Sierra Burgess Sunflower Song
Picture: Netflix

Sunflowers play a pivotal role in the movie. If you've seen the film, you'll remember that Sierra asks Jamey (during one of her slightly creepy cat-fishing phone calls) what kind of flower he’d be, and he says she (believing that she's actually popular girl Veronica) would be a rose: “The queen flower all the other flowers are jealous of.”

Sierra sees herself as a sunflower; much quirkier than a rose, "a little funny" as she describes. After she's f*cked up her most important relationships, she sends her friends a song, 'Sunflower'. And at the end of the film, when Jamey decides to actually give it a go with Sierra, he brings her a sunflower and says "For the record, I think that roses are more like the bitchy supermodels of flowers."

Read the full lyrics to the song below:

Rose girls in glass vases // Perfect bodies, perfect faces // They all belong in magazines // Those girls the boys are chasing // Winning all the games they're playing // They're always in a different league // Stretching toward the sky like I don't care // Wishing you could see me standing there // But I'm a sunflower, a little funny // If I was a rose, maybe you'd want me If I could, I'd change overnight // And turn into something you'd like // But I'm a sunflower, a little funny // If I was a rose, maybe you'd pick me // But I know you don't have a clue // This sunflower's waiting for you, waiting for you.

People are really relating to the lyrics in the song, which touches on the insecurities that Sierra felt in regards to her more popular classmates, like Veronica.

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I'm not crying... you are. As we mentioned before, the song itself is actually sung by Purser. Despite showing off her vocals many times on social media, it's the first time she's sung on screen.

"I've been singing since I was a little kid, but Sierra was my first time singing on camera," she told PopCrush, "which was definitely intimidating at first. I think it went pretty well. I love to sing."

While the song is "written" by Sierra in the film, the actual lyrics were co-written by the soundtrack's producer Leland, Allie X, Bram Incore, screenwriter Lindsey Beer and the one and only Troye Sivan. The lyrics are based on words that Beer wrote as a teenager. “I remember very clearly the evening that I wrote it,” she tells Billboard. “It was sparked by something that I won't go into, but it was cathartic.”

There's also too versions of the song on the soundtrack; a stripped back version sung by Purser (the one that features in the film) and then Allie X's more up-beat version which plays over the end credits.

Isn't that lovely? Alexa, play Sunflower.