While many know musical artist Gigi Perez from her viral song “Sailor Song” on TikTok, her most recent release on Oct. 27 makes me want to sob violently. The song is called “Fable” in honor of her late sister. The song is named after the last song Perez heard and watched her sister sing on stage.

“Fable” was initially teased on TikTok on Sept. 9 and quickly went viral, inspiring hundreds of edits to fall onto my For You Page, making the pain hurt even more. The bridge was the part of the song that struck cords with many people, but the rest of the song still carries the same emotion throughout.

“Capital loss / Love was the law and religion was taught, I’m not bought / Feel when we argue, my skin starts to rot, our skin starts to rot.”

This part of the song inspired many video editors to create edits of various queer relationships where one partner has religious trauma, which causes the relationship to end. 

Some edits that I saw over and over were of Evan “Buck” Buckley and Eddie Diaz from “9-1-1” (2018), Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower from “House of the Dragon” (2022) and Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist from “Brokeback Mountain” (2005). All were extremely hard-hitting and made me want to cry.

However, the song has a much deeper meaning than romantic love, like familial love. The song is about her sister. From my interpretation, “Fable” shares the story of how her sister died by suicide because of religious trauma regarding their sexuality, which breaks my heart even more than the original interpretation.

In addition to the song’s heartbreaking lyrics, there is something about the guitar playing and the lack of other instruments — it makes the song that much more impactful.

While also being about one of her sisters, Perez’s other sister, Bella, sang the backing vocals for “Fable,” further cementing the familial love themes in the song. 

At the end of the song, Perez shares a voicemail cutting into the lyrics. The message is assumed to be from her late sister. This audio, along with the overall sadness of the song, makes it even more heartbreaking to listen to.

“Look into the open sky /  Stars blink like my sister’s eyes (Hey princess, it’s Celi, I’m just calling you to wish you luck on your performance at the cafe) Stars blink like my sister’s eyes (Um, I love you, you’re gonna kill it, bye, baby).”

But despite it being a sad song, I cannot help but leave it playing on a loop. Perez has an amazing voice and is able to encapsulate so much pain in the 4:21 run time.

While I may not be able to relate directly to the song, that does not mean I love it any less. Even listening to the song, I can feel and understand Perez’s pain, and I can picture her grief. This song is amazing, and it was instantly added to my sad music playlist.

Perez shared some background of the song in an Instagram post, sharing some information about the last time she saw her sister perform as a character named Margaret.

“She wasn’t great because she was my sister,” Perez wrote. “She was great because she was great.”

Boggess can be reached at [email protected].