Marcel Winatschek

The Friendzone Gets a Proper Anthem

The friendzone is the worst possible destination. You were too considerate, too present, too visibly invested—and now you’re absorbing late-night messages about someone else while pretending it’s fine. The bad boy from the club isn’t losing sleep over it. You are.

Anne-Marie and Marshmello wrote a song about it. Friends lands exactly right for the situation—calibrated so precisely that you could play it in the presence of the person in question and they still wouldn’t get it. Anne-Marie handles the vocals with the kind of ease that makes the subject hurt more, not less; Marshmello brings the production, fresh off his collaboration with Selena Gomez. Three-time karate world champion writing about emotional purgatory, helmet-wearing DJ on the beat. It works.

The song came out in early 2018 alongside Anne-Marie’s sold-out UK run, followed by a European tour that brought her through Cologne, Hamburg, and Berlin that April. She went on to support Ed Sheeran across Germany shortly after. The friendzone got a moment on some large stages. Still no known exit—but at least someone made it sound this good.