US singer Krystal Metcalfe releases blues single about student loan debt

A former student has been left feeling so blue over being stuck in debt that she’s poured her feelings into a catchy and soul-searching single.

Krystal Metcalfe, from Chicago in the US, has released the “breakup” song called Sallie as a reference to American student loans lender, Sallie Mae.

According to MarketWatch, 29-year-old Metcalfe described how the song doesn’t fully focus on Sallie Mae, but is an ode to the overall challenges of living with student debt. “It’s a reference to all of my student loans, she’s just the most popular,” Metcalfe told the site.

Hats off to the singer for successfully comparing a breakup to student loan debt in a way many graduates will, no doubt, be able to relate to. Metcalfe sings: “We can’t ever go out to eat/Gotta stay in the house/While others are vacationing, I’m busy trying to figure it out.

Sallie by Krystal Metcalfe:

“You tell me/You’ll give me time/But I don’t want to spend my life, indebted to you/And you call me, almost every night/There’s no running, and I can’t hide/No no no no no Sallie.”

Speaking to the Independent, Metcalfe, who says if Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan had a baby, “she’d be me,” described how she wrote the song on her couch with her guitar as a playful blues. “I was drowning my sorrows in laughter and song, singing about being broke,” she said. “A breakup song with Sallie, if you will.”

She continued: “I was frustrated because my husband and I couldn’t watch Netflix under my mother-in-law’s account and, at the time, we didn’t have the luxury of getting our own. From being in debt, I’ve learned that, just as it’s taken time to accumulate, I won’t get rid of it overnight. I’ve stopped freaking out by looking at the total as a whole, and I’ve decided to eat the elephant one bite at a time.”

Speaking of the message she wants her new song to convey, Metcalfe said she wants listeners to know it’s okay to “voice your frustrations, channel them into art, and inspire people.” She said: “Let them know they are not alone in the student loan struggle. I hope people can laugh and enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed creating it.”

A spokesperson for Sallie Mae told MarketWatch, though, that Metcalfe doesn’t appear to be a customer, but added: “We certainly empathise with her frustration.”

The song comes after a similar one by New Orleans rapper, Dee-1, released his own ode to student loans, Sallie Mae Back, for which the video went viral after its online release earlier this year. In his song, however, Dee-1 celebrates finally being able to pay off all of his debt.

Writing on his Facebook days after the release, Dee-1 said: “Some would say Sallie Mae Back is a breakup song. Hopefully your exes weren’t as obsessive as Sallie was.”

The spate of debt-themed songs has come as campaigners in the country marked April as four years since the US student loan debt surpassed $1 trillion.