Conan Gray is currently in the midst of his very successful Found Heaven on Tour in North America. At his sold out concert at Madison Square Garden on September 30th, Conan played a new song, “Holidays”, as a surprise. I heard it for the first time a few hours after he played it live on fan accounts. On October 18th, Conan finally released “Holidays” on all streaming platforms, and within twenty-four hours, it got almost fifty-thousand streams.
“Holidays” tells the beautiful story of Conan’s best friend, Ashley. He sings that when he visits her and his family during the holidays in his hometown in Texas, he feels that nothing has changed between them. That connection and genuine friendship that Conan found with Ashley is something that he feels will always be present between them.
My favorite lyric is “Photo strips of you and me. Felt so old at only seventeen” from the first verse. Like Conan, I have numerous pictures on display of my friends and I around my room. It is easy to feel experienced at seventeen, but in reality, we had a lot more learning to do. I also really love a lyric from the chorus: “wе keep on growing, didn’t think it’d show but I see it on your face”. When you are caught up in the moment it is hard to realize how much time actually passes. People change and at this age you either grow with people or outgrow them, especially childhood friends. Conan is very happy to say that he proportionally grew with Ashley. The whistling in the song is a very cute addition and it makes the song more personal to me.
I have a few long distance friends myself, so I completely understand what Conan is describing in “Holidays”. Whenever my friends and I talk, it feels as though we are still those young kids in school who happened to become best friends. Finding friends who you feel this way with is such a blessing and Conan and I are very lucky to have such important people in our lives. I absolutely loved Conan’s new song. It is such a beautiful story about his connection with his best friend despite spending time apart.