Tess Clare – “Hit List” | Cinematic indie pop turns heartbreak into defiance

“Hit List” finds Tess Clare at one of the most confrontational points of Diva 98. If “Not Here For You” represented a decision to step away from familiar romantic patterns, this track turns that independence into something much more defiant. It grows out of relationships defined by the familiar hot-and-cold dynamic: people who promise to come back, disappear, and then return as if nothing happened. Clare transforms that frustration into a fantasy of emotional revenge, where vulnerability no longer gets the final word.

The title’s “hit list” works as a deliberately theatrical exaggeration of that shift in perspective. It is not a literal list of enemies, but a way of turning disappointment into boundaries. The narrator recognizes how much mental space she gave to people who failed to earn her trust and decides to stop playing the role of the one waiting for answers. Anger, irony, and newly acquired confidence coexist here, allowing resentment to become less about defeat than about reclaiming agency.

Theatrical pop between vulnerability and attitude

Within the cinematic indie pop world of Diva 98, Clare pushes her confessional writing toward a more performative register. The song gains its character from the contrast between the emotional experience behind it and the exaggerated persona used to answer it. That theatricality turns an ordinary romantic disappointment into something almost cinematic, with the album’s “diva” becoming an alter ego capable of saying what the vulnerable self might still hesitate to express.

A fantasy of emotional revenge

The image of a saint revealing himself as a devil captures the song’s central contradiction: someone can appear trustworthy while ultimately proving otherwise. Rather than trying to reconcile those two versions, “Hit List” embraces the distance between them. One of the track’s strongest choices is precisely this transformation of insecurity into something theatrical, exaggerated, and unapologetically defiant.

YILIANE FLÁNDEZ: "Holograma", Vulnerabilidad, Territorio y Música Como Refugio | Entrevista – R+

Estrenamos nuestro formato de entrevistas presenciales con Yiliane Flández, música chilena que visitó México para el Encuentro Iberoamericano de Mujeres en la Industria Musical. Hablamos de "Holograma", un sencillo que aborda el abuso desde lo íntimo y lo conecta con el extractivismo en su territorio mapuche. Yiliane nos cuenta cómo la música fue su refugio desde niña, cómo convive con la neurodivergencia y el trauma, y cómo el arte puede acompañar y promover el pensamiento crítico. Una charla profunda sobre memoria, resistencia y vulnerabilidad como fortaleza.https://open.spotify.com/intl-es/track/1AnFTcbFtlbHqnfE4bFnUohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_cTP5ZFYOIhttps://www.instagram.com/yilianeflandez_musichttps://www.tiktok.com/@yilianeflandez_musica