GÖZDE IS TURNING PRESSURE INTO DIAMONDS
With new single Pressure (Who Cares What’s Coming?), the London-based Turkish alternative-pop artist is turning unsolicited advice, simmering frustration and other people’s expectations into a reminder to back yourself.
There’s nothing quite like someone who knows absolutely nothing about you telling you exactly how to live your life. Whether it’s unsolicited advice from people who haven’t tried to understand you or the endless noise of other people’s expectations, sometimes the pressure to be anything other than yourself becomes a little too much. For Gözde, that frustration has found its way into a new single, and she’s got something to say about it.
Out today, “Pressure (Who Cares What’s Coming?)” is an empowering release about reaching breaking point, questioning everything and, ultimately, deciding that perhaps everyone else’s opinion doesn’t deserve quite so much airtime. Built around the metaphor of a pressure cooker, the track captures the slow, simmering build-up of frustration before arriving at a defiant moment of self-belief. Because if people are going to have something to say regardless, you might as well give them something to talk about.
For Gözde, the song began with a familiar enough feeling: being on the receiving end of advice she never asked for. “I had encountered a lot of people telling me how to live my life or giving me unsolicited advice, when they didn’t even know me or had no interest in understanding me,” she explains. What started as external pressure quickly turned into anger, something she needed to get out of her system without taking it out on anyone else.
Enter the songwriting process. Rather than letting that frustration fester, Gözde channelled it into her music. It’s a reminder that sometimes the most productive response to the world getting on your nerves is to make something out of it. “I have to write about it,” she says, explaining how she turns particularly intense emotions into music. “In a way I was talking to myself to remind myself who I am and what I’m doing everything for. It’s like therapy. It always works.”
And that’s where “Pressure (Who Cares What’s Coming?)” finds its real strength. Beneath the rising tension and questions about what’s right, there’s a determination to find your feet again. The song doesn’t pretend that uncertainty magically disappears when you decide to trust yourself; instead, it sits in that messy middle ground between wanting to run away and wanting to stand your ground. The lyrics capture the feeling of being surrounded by noise, trying to make sense of it all while wondering whether you’re even making the right decisions in the first place.
For Gözde, writing the track helped her reconnect with a confidence she already knew she needed. “I already knew I shouldn’t listen to what other people say but writing this song is what made me reinstate that feeling,” she says. Sometimes, the pep talk you need most is the one you give yourself.
The song’s turning point arrives in its chorus: “Who cares what’s coming? I’ll be a diamond.” It’s a line that transforms the track’s simmering frustration into something much more empowering. The diamond metaphor is one that lingers: pressure can be destructive, but it can also be transformative. The trick is remembering that other people don’t get to decide what you become.
“Diamonds are built under pressure,” Gözde explains. “People are going to judge you whether you like it or not and whatever judgement they have, it doesn’t and shouldn’t matter.” Her advice? Trust yourself, know who you are and have the courage to stand by it.
It’s this combination of emotional honesty, sharp observation and a refusal to shrink herself that makes Gözde an artist worth keeping on your radar. The Turkish alternitive-pop artist, based in London, makes music that feels like pages torn from a journal: raw, intimate and unafraid to sit with contradiction.
With “Pressure (Who Cares What’s Coming?)” out in the world, Gözde is feeling bolder than ever, and there’s more on the way. “I’ve been writing lyrics that I’m really proud of and working on songs that excite me A LOT,” she says. She’s also been connecting more closely with her audience, something she says she really thrives on. If this single is anything to go by, she’s not planning on playing it safe any time soon.
To give listeners a peek behind the track, Gözde has also put together an exclusive behind-the-scenes video documenting the making of “Pressure (Who Cares What’s Coming?)” - a little look at the work that went into turning those feelings into a finished record.
And, of course, we had to ask the all-important F-word question: her favourite F word. Her answer? “Fragile.” Why? “It’s so hauntingly beautiful to me. Also works great as an insult.” We couldn't have put it better ourselves.
