*With deep angst and deeper grooves, Avenue Beat’s viral hit single “F2020” is a passionate f*** you to a year that’s been nothing but trouble.*

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Stream: “F2020” – Avenue Beat

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♬ F2020 – Avenue Beat

I can’t remember when I first started looking forward to 2020, but I have long felt this special connection to that year deep down inside. I spent hours exploring these feelings; my dad and I spoke many times about me writing a song called “2020” that would play with the ideas of 20/20 vision, new beginnings, and a decade’s fresh start. As 2019 came to a close, I was increasingly giddy with anticipation for the days to come: 2020 was going to be the year I would get married, the year I dove back into my own music, and maybe – just maybe – the year I took a little more control over my life. I wouldn’t call these goals “lofty” by any stretch of the imagination, but at 27, I felt ready to hone in on myself and take the reigns. 2020 felt like the perfect time to make these things happen.

What a waste.

What a sad and crippling start to the new decade. 2020 is on track to go down as one of the worst years in living memory, and we’re only halfway through it. As of this writing, over 555,000 people – a number equivalent to the entire population of cities like Atlanta, Sacramento, Tucson, or Albuquerque – have died due to COVID-19. Experts suggest the true tally is much higher, and this number also does not include those who have recovered, but will suffer long-term effects. I’ve lost loved ones this year, as have my friends – none of whom I’ve been able to see since March. And while the revitalization of the Black Lives Matter movement gives me some reasons to hope, I can’t help but remember the innocent Black men and women whose deaths precipitated this activism. Any optimism I may have is consistently overshadowed by 2020’s pervasive pain, loss, and suffering.

So yeah: Fuck 2020

F2020 - Avenue Beat — F2020 – Avenue Beat

Full of deep angst and deeper grooves, Avenue Beat’s viral hit single “F2020” is a passionate f*** you to a year that’s given us nothing but trouble.

December 31st, I grabbed a beer
Threw it up, said, “2020 is my year, bitches”
(Three, two, one, Happy New Year)
And I honestly thought that that was true
Until I gave this motherfucker like a month or two
This is getting kind of ridiculous at this point
Yo, my cat died and a global pandemic took over my life
And I put out some music that nobody liked
So, I got really sad and bored at the same time
And that’s why I’m like

Lowkey fuck 2020
Still sad, still ain’t got no money
I ain’t got a watch up on my wrist
I just got some shit I gotta fix (Yeah)
Lowkey fuck 2020
I don’t know about everybody else
But I think that I am kinda done
Can we just get to 2021? (Please)
Lowkey fuck 2020

“Officially” released on July 10, 2020 after garnering a whopping 11 million views on TikTok, “F2020” is just the latest in a string of recent runaway hit singles from Nashville’s Avenue Beat. Self-described as a “genzennial” collective, the Nashville alt-pop trio of Sami Bearden, Savana Santos, and Sam Backoff introduced their soulful pop/country blend just one year ago with their debut Avenue Beat EP, and have been making bigger and bigger waves ever since. Their popularity on TikTok, where they currently have over 300,000 followers, has translated into tremendous real-world success on stream sites and more, and that trend looks ready to continue tenfold with “F2020.”

L to R: Sam Backoff, Savana Santos, Sami Bearden © Delaney Royer — Avenue Beat (left to right): Sam Backoff, Savana Santos, Sami Bearden © Delaney Royer

A buoyant, lush pop song that so effortlessly captures the zeitgeist, “F2020” is a finessed and cool outpouring of the exasperation and anxiety we’ve all felt this year.

Arriving just as 2020 enters its second half and we begin to reflect on the first six months, the track embodies that stunned sensation we continue to have each and every day thanks to the global pandemic, a range of continuing injustices, the president and current White House administration, and oh so much more. We can’t adjust to this level of complete and utter chaos in the way that we’ve been able to normalize other tragedies, displays of incompetence, and related experiences; there’s simply nothing that comes close to the devastating events of this year on a personal, cultural, societal, and global scale.

So what can you do? Sometimes you just want to raise a middle finger to 2020, and scream to the heavens. Avenue Beat’s new song is the perfect vessel for us to express all that anger, fear, tension, and strife: It’s the soundtrack to a year that really has been the absolute worst.

That’s not to say there haven’t been some rays of light; between various Supreme Court rulings, the Dalai Lama’s debut album, the Black Lives Matter movement, and more, there are a few reasons for us to start looking up – but the good continues to outweight the bad, and nothing about these next six months will be anywhere close to what was once considered “normal.”

In short, life will continue to be very difficult for a very long time.

Again: Fuck 2020

“F2020” taps into the harsh realities of life as it is right now in this moment, for me and for you. It’s an engaging, easy listen, and an obvious candidate for song of the summer and pop song of the year. Give Avenue Beat a listen, and let’s all join them in singing: