After a period of silence, Ashe is back in business with her new single ‘Stop The Wedding!’. Having recently signed with Warner Music’s Atlantic Records, her period of self publishing is over. Her fourth studio album’s expected lead single ‘Stop the Wedding!’ was released on August 7th and marks the beginning of a new musical era.
For those who may not know Ashe, her work will surely ring a bell. Rising to fame with her 2020 song ‘Moral Of The Story’, Ashe has since released three albums – Ashlyn, Rae and Willson, the complete trilogy representing her full name. But that is not all, because next to her solo repertoire, Ashe is part of the band The Favors, together with FINNEAS. The Favors released their debut album The Dream in September 2025, though unfortunately, Europe is still longing for the album tour. Ashe is currently on tour with Benson Boone as his support act in the United States and has previously supported Gracie Abrams and Kelsea Ballerini on tour.
While ‘Stop The Wedding!’ marks a new era in Ashe’s music, it is unapologetically her. Its genre-bending instrumentals and layered harmonies remind us of debut album Ashlyn as Ashe stays true to herself with the metaphorical lyricism that’s so remarkably her. The song starts with a rushed verse that mimics the stress that can occur when having to make an important decision. The lyrics “This isn’t cold feet, these aren’t fireworks” explain that it’s not about being nervous for a wedding and knowing that the doubts will disappear after the ceremony, but that the negative feelings are larger than that. There are no romantic feelings (fireworks) towards the partner that’s standing at the altar. “The sky is menacing and that’s an iceberg” further symbolizes these negative and dark feelings. These lyrics in combination with the rushed vocals and instrumentals highlight a certain urgency. The chorus goes on to mention “the warning signs are flashing now”, further showing the realization that going on with the wedding is a bad decision.
‘Stop The Wedding!’ shows some similarities with ‘Moral Of The Story’ and ‘Save Myself’, which Ashe wrote about her first marriage. In ‘Moral Of The Story’ she sings “should have seen the signs” and in ‘Save Myself’ she mentions the “red flags, tended to ignore them’” Where in ‘Stop The Wedding!’ Ashe writes “He thinks he’s velvet smooth, I’ve fallen for the act”, in ‘Moral Of The Story’ she sings”‘So I never really knew you, God I really tried to”. Both songs argue that the other person in the marriage is a manipulator, never really showing their true self. Next to this, there’s similarities with the fireworks mentioned in ‘Stop The Wedding!’: “You can think that you’re in love when you’re really just engaged”.
In the last chorus in ‘Stop The Wedding!’ Ashe changes “you don’t have to waste your night’ into “waste your life”, once again highlighting the urgency of choosing for yourself. In ‘Save Myself’, Ashe sings “I could have saved myself from wasting half my twenties”, talking about the same marriage. Where ‘Moral Of The Story’ still has a moderately thankful note (“some mistakes get made, that’s alright, that’s okay” and “in the end it’s better for me”), ‘Save Myself’ has an angry tone and focuses on the bad parts of the relationship and how it ruined a part of her life (“if I had the chance I would take it back, jumping off your sinking ship instead of going down with it” and “I could have saved myself from you”). The titanic lyric from ‘Stop The Wedding!’ is also a cheeky reference to this lyric.
Like ‘Moral Of The Story’ and ‘Save Myself’, ‘Stop The Wedding!’ is about Ashe’s first marriage in her early twenties. ‘Stop The Wedding!’ is an empowering anthem that can also be applied to other scenarios than a wedding, emphasizing how important it is to choose for yourself and that it is okay to change your mind. Like Ashe wrote in an X post celebrating the release of the song: “You don’t have to stay in the relationship, the friendship, the hometown, the career, or become who anyone else expects you to be. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is stop the wedding”.
Ironically, the idea for this song came to Ashe during her wedding with The Brook & The Bluff’s drummer John Canada, as she tells Broadway World: “I was thinking about how absolutely perfect my wedding day was and how horrifying the first wedding was. I’m married and divorced and the only reason I have a career is because of the song I wrote about it. This time around, I was in my 30s and I just kept thinking about how much autonomy I have in it and how if this didn’t feel right for some reason, I could totally put a halt to this whole thing. I didn’t feel that freedom as a 23 year-old getting married.”
Let this song be a reminder that it is always most important to choose for yourself, to let go of expectations and to not only make choices to keep someone else happy. We cannot wait to see what else Ashe is cooking up for this year!
Written by: Marloes Joosen
Edited by: Mandy Huibregtsen
