Georgia Lines has released her first single of the year, “Wonderful Life”.
Retaining her pillowy, earnest vocals and lyrical vulnerability, “Wonderful Life” adds intriguing new touches to Lines’s sonic palette – less piano balladry, more acoustic guitar and drum patterns; less Brooke Fraser, more Perfume Genius.
“It leans into something more organic and textured,” the Aotearoa pop artist says of the song, which was co-written with UK singer-songwriter and producer Matt Hales in a “strange little studio” in LA.
“It wasn’t glamorous at all – more like we’d walked into someone’s garage. I remember picking up this wonky nylon guitar with a strange tuning and started playing a chord progression that would later become the chorus. In about 20 minutes, we had the chords, the melody, and the bones of the song. It felt like it all just poured out.”
Lines’s song is built around a mantra, “It’s a wonderful life,” which she kept returning to during a time when she needed to remind herself of those words. “It became a way of pulling myself forward toward the life I wanted to live, even when things didn’t feel all that wonderful,” she explains.
Watch the accompanying music video below, which was shot at a farmhouse in Manawatu.
“You see me writing mantras on the walls – phrases that have kept me company over the years. It’s not flashy or overly stylised, but instead gentle and reflective, much like the song itself. It captures the in-between moments, the stillness, and the quiet determination that sits just beneath the lyrics,” she says of the clip.
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“Wonderful Life” is Lines’s first new music since her acclaimed album The Rose of Jericho, which reached the Top 10 on Rolling Stone AU/NZ‘s Best New Zealand Albums of 2024 list.
That was followed by her inclusion in our Future of Music 2025 series, with Lines chosen as one of 25 Australian and New Zealand artists tipped for the very top.
In an accompanying interview, Lines told us about her excitement about her upcoming music. “There’s so much in the works for 2025, and as always, it feels like everything is happening at once!
“It feels like the beginning of a new chapter for me in so many ways, and I can’t wait to start sharing it with the world later this year,” she said.
Lines will compete in four categories at next week’s 2025 Aotearoa Music Awards, including for Album of the Year for The Rose of Jericho. Her debut album was previously nominated for the prestigious Taite Music Prize, while standout track “The Letter” was nominated for the 2024 Silver Scroll Award.
Following the 2025 Aotearoa Music Awards, Lines will play her biggest show to date, Under the Stars with Friends, on June 15th, which will see her curate a special performance with members of Auckland Philharmonia as part of Auckland Live’s Cabaret Festival. The show will also feature her fellow NZ artists Hollie Smith, Louis Baker, and Nikau Grace. More information is available here.
Georgia Lines’s “Wonderful Life” is out now.
