Marina and the Diamonds: Seventeen Meaning
Seventeen Lyrics
But the melody went stale,
Musical cacophony let,
Insy Winsy spider free.
You're a rich little boy,
Who's had to work for his toys,
You've got all the sensibilities, oh,
Of an upper class guy.
No, no I'm not...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:It is about her relationship with her dad. Her parents split when she was young. She lived with her dad in greece from she was 15 til she was 17.
Her dad told her how to be and to act. Marina was brought up by her mothers side of the family and her father probably didnt think it was good, He questioned the was she was brought up. He thought that she would have been moore ladylike and a little less outspoken. He was embaressed of her.
And she sings of a "Upper class wife". That was probably his dads girlfriend or wife she didnt like. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:I always thought she was raped or sexually assaulted the day she turned seventeen. Some people (the "you" she speaks of) try to dismiss her, while others pin the blame on her family, ("I felt you question the way I was brought up as a baby") when they couldn't be more wrong.("well, you don't know fuck about my family")
She can't help but express her contempt for the perpetrator, with "the rise of a king and the fall of a queen" being used.Also "no, I'm not your little slave" can be compared to this as well. The usage of "used to be a major scale, then the melody went stale" is referring to how the experience affected her mental health.
When she says "Musical cacophony set eensy weensy spider free", she talks about how she was noticed and then preyed on shortly after.
("Oh,you are embarrassed of me,'cause I use my tongue freely, bet you wish I couldn't speak)" referencing her pleas for help, which were to no avail, and probably was ridiculed for causing a stir.
"You teach me how to behave" is when she gets accused of being too provocative, and forced to "cover up" or "be more modest". You see in
"that it was just how things were meant to be", that she blames herself, and thinks that her actions led to it,that her "immodest behavior" was inevitable, and this was bound to happen. She seems not to take her experience seriously ("I used to kid myself in this stress").
As a sexual assault survivor, this song resonates with me significantly, as it describes my experiences perfectly. This song helped me through hard times and I want to let you know, that if you were in a situation like mine, you're not alone. -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:I've always thought it was about the day she lost her virginity. She could've been directing this to a boyfriend that thought he could boss her around and use her, however she's cautious and now knows of men like this because of the man that took her virginity may have had similar traits
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i’ve always interpreted it as getting sa’d bc i’m a victim and when she says the “rise of the king and fall of a queen” is like a guy having power over the victim and the feeling of defeat almost and then when she’s says she can’t tell us what happened the day she turned 17 makes me think that too
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The first thing i thought was she was raped by her father. it realized me that she was treated wrong
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I think it’s about the Anastasia Romanov and the execution of her and her family. She was 17 when she died and she was a Russian princess
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I thought it had something to do with her dad killing a woman she found out and when he realized she knew he tried to silence her aka kill her but on her 17th birthday she ran away from home so he couldn't but eventually found her and was ultimately murdered. I don't know why but that's the story that came to mind when I heard the song the first time so yeah.
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I thought that in the part "I was brought up as a baby
Well you don't know a f*ck about my family could never tell you what happened when I turn seventeen the rise of a king and the fall of a queen" was about lady Jane Grey -
I don't think this is correct, but for me personally, I took it as a trans man coming out at seventeen.
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I thought it was about Katherine Howard and how she was senventeen when she got excecuted at 17 and got married to Henry viii of england
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I thought this was a song about paternal abuse the way it was talking about family and how she won't talk about it
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