Dear listeners,
You may have noticed a familiar name on the pop charts lately: “Nicole Kidman.”
No, the Australian actress isn’t making a sudden pivot into musical stardom (though she did hold her own on the “Moulin Rouge!” soundtrack). “Nicole Kidman” is the title of a slinky and maddeningly catchy song by the pink-haired Slovakian pop star Adéla, who recently released her debut album, “Prima.” (“Nicole Kidman” has been steadily rising on the Hot 100; this week, it hit a new peak at No. 6.) “Babygirl in control,” Adéla sings on the chorus, referencing the 2024 Kidman film. “I feel like Nicole.”
The sudden inescapability of “Nicole Kidman” got me thinking of other songs named for actresses, and today I’ve compiled a playlist of some of them. Since famous musicians are often rather fond of dating movie stars, there are quite a few songs inspired by romantic relationships with actresses. But I’m more interested in the types that, like “Nicole Kidman,” describe an admiration from afar, perhaps even across time.
You’ll hear SZA’s sweet ode to one of her screen idols, the Go-Betweens’ love letter to an Oscar nominee, and not one but two songs that pay tribute to silent cinema’s original “It Girl.”* Get into character and press play.
She’s precocious,
Lindsay
* You will not, however, be hearing Fall Out Boy’s infernal ear worm “Uma Thurman.” I’m sorry. Listen to it on your own time if you must, but I simply can’t with that song.
Listen along while you read.
1. Kim Carnes: “Bette Davis Eyes”
Kim Carnes compares the heroine of his song to several different Old Hollywood legends — Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo — but the true star of this ethereal synth-pop classic is, of course, the one and only Bette Davis. When “Bette Davis Eyes” became a No. 1 hit in 1981, Davis herself was 73. She later said she “thought the words were pretty terrific,” and that she especially appreciated the song because it made her grandson see her in a new light: “He looked at me completely differently from there on.” (Carnes’s version of the song is also not the first: Jackie DeShannon, a co-writer of the song, released a vampy, lighthearted rendition in 1974. I much prefer Carnes’s haunting take.)
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
2. SZA: “Drew Barrymore”
SZA embraces her insecurities on this track from her great 2017 debut album, “CTRL,” which was inspired by the quirky, carefree attitude of one of her favorite actresses, Drew Barrymore (who makes a cameo in the music video). In a heartfelt 2025 appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” SZA addressed her muse directly and explained the impact that Barrymore had on her when she was growing up. “You gave me permission to be myself,” she said.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
3. Billy Bragg & Wilco: “Ingrid Bergman”
On the collaborative 1998 album “Mermaid Avenue,” the English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg and the American band Wilco composed music to go with unreleased lyrics that had been written by Woody Guthrie before his death. In 1950, Guthrie penned this rather frisky ode to the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and her performance in the recently released Roberto Rossellini picture “Stromboli,” which Bragg animated with a lilting folk melody.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
4. The Go-Betweens: “Lee Remick”
The bouncy, endearingly straightforward 1978 debut single by the Australian indie-pop band the Go-Betweens is an ode to the American actress Lee Remick, whose memorable performance in the 1962 drama “Days of Wine and Roses” earned her an Oscar nomination. The Go-Betweens singer-songwriter Robert Forster later recalled of the track, “I wanted to write a love song. But I wasn’t in love with anyone, so I just projected it towards that screen image.” (Forster gets bonus points for rhyming “Gregory Peck” with “what the heck.”)
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. The Cleaners From Venus: “Clara Bow”
The tuneful, lo-fi indie group the Cleaners From Venus — led by the English singer-songwriter Martin Newell — pay homage to the original “It Girl,” the silent film star Clara Bow, on this dreamy track from the 1986 LP “Living With Victoria Grey.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. Taylor Swift: “Clara Bow”
Here’s an entirely different take on Clara Bow, from Taylor Swift’s 2024 album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” While Martin Newell sees Bow as a kind of idealized romantic projection, Swift identifies with her, using the It Girl’s name to conjure Old Hollywood glamour, fleeting fame, and show business’s unfairly fickle attitudes toward female beauty. I confess I greatly prefer this song to Swift’s other recent ode to an iconic actress.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
7. Nirvana: “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle”
Kurt Cobain felt a deep connection to the Seattle-born actress Frances Farmer, whose distaste for the conventions of 1930s Hollywood mirrored his own disillusionment with the commercialism of the music industry. (Courtney Love even wore one of Farmer’s dresses when she and Cobain got married, though she is not the Frances that they named their daughter after — that would be Frances McKee from the Vaselines.) This song on Nirvana’s 1993 album “In Utero” is an impassioned channeling of Farmer’s defiant spirit (she died in 1970, not long after Cobain was born), and a rewriting of her life story into a snarling fantasy of revenge. Rest in peace, Frances Farmer; I honestly think you would have loved grunge.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
8. Adéla: “Nicole Kidman”
Adéla has said that she was inspired to write “Nicole Kidman” after going to a Golden Globes after-party in a corset that was laced so tightly that she found herself thinking, “I feel like Nicole Kidman.” (Who among us hasn’t been in that exact situation?) In a recent interview on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” Kidman revealed that she is a fan of the song, and, when shown an image from the music video’s “Moulin Rouge!” scene alongside a still from the original movie, Kidman paid Adéla the ultimate compliment: “She looks way better on the trapeze.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The Amplifier Playlist
“‘Nicole Kidman’ and Other Musical Odes to Actresses” track list Track 1: Kim Carnes, “Bette Davis Eyes” Track 2: SZA, “Drew Barrymore” Track 3: Billy Bragg & Wilco, “Ingrid Bergman” Track 4: The Go-Betweens, “Lee Remick” Track 5: The Cleaners From Venus, “Clara Bow” Track 6: Taylor Swift, “Clara Bow” Track 7: Nirvana, “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle” Track 8: Adéla, “Nicole Kidman”
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The post ‘Nicole Kidman’ and Other Musical Odes to Actresses appeared first on New York Times.
