After a little over a year of “Talk” and “Bye Bye”, what’s a better time to revisit the EP that includes many of the songs we’ve gotten the chance to sing with Omar, either during his Fall and ENF tours or summer festivals?

As his first major music project since OMR, his breakout album, it's pretty safe to say that fans were more than ecstatic for this new EP. Considering the two year gap between the album and EP, his return to the music scene was long-awaited, as many couldn’t wait to see Omar Rudberg’s growth as an artist. 

A professional at teasing his fans, Omar gave fans many hints, including studio selfies on his Instagram story and post captions, one actually including a reference to the EP’s title. He also performed a few of the songs before officially releasing them, such as “Red Light”, which he performed for the first time during Cirkus and both “Talk” and “Bye Bye”, during sound check and the actual show at his later 2024 summer festivals, a few months before dropping the full EP.

It only made fans more excited as we witnessed what many still consider some of the greatest music released by Rudberg. 

Going by the EP’s order, we’ll first dive into Talk—a playful pop song with less than subtle lyrics. 

Quotes like “Fly around like a feather in my mind” fill the song with an air of fun sensuality, perfectly capturing the more giddy sides of falling in love with someone. It’s about the chase, the game of back and forth, where either side slowly begins to reveal their cards, still too nervous to fully tell the other their true feelings.

“Girlfriend,” the next song on the EP, shares the same light-heartedness, with a few more risque lyrics.

Here, Rudberg describes falling for someone who is already taken. Someone who wants you back, but could never claim you fully—a type of romance that’s meant only for closed doors and hotel sheets. 

We see Omar unapologetically owning his sexuality in lyrics such as “I can't leave a pretty boy alone” all the while keeping things entertaining in the chorus, “You got a girlfriend/ She ain't doin' it right/ You got a girlfriend/ I don't see her tonight/ I'll be your girlfriend/ I'll be whatever you like.”

And on the note of catchy, I’ve got to say that “Girlfriend” is one of my favorite songs I’ve gotten to experience live. Chanting the words with Omar and watching him completely kill it on stage has got to be a combination crafted by the music gods themselves. 

“Girlfriend” also has its own visualizer, which features Omar standing in a darker green-blue light, only partially lit, capturing the sneakier parts of the song. 

@OmarRubergOfficial YT 

He’s also had numerous interviews discussing it in which he speaks to the sadder undertone of the song. While fun on the surface, Omar reminds us that, for many, this quiet, hidden type of relationship is the only one available. The speaker of the song agrees to being a “side chick” because it’s not safe for him to be out, he doesn’t think he can find someone who can give him something more, he thinks all he can have is partial, stolen love.

Up next is “Bye Bye”—my number one song of Spotify Wrapped 2024 (I’m not obsessed, you are).  

This song set Twitter on fire, and I don’t mean whoops I accidentally turned on the burner on—I mean the type that would make the most experienced arsonists squirm. And the culprit: these lyrics “Please don't waste my time you pretty boy”. 

While Rudberg’s sexuality is no secret, this was the first time he’s referenced a definitively male lover in his lyrics, and honestly, just hearing the way he says “pretty boy” is enough to warrant such a reaction. It’s just so…he’s a diva. That’s all I can say to that. 

“Bye Bye” seems to capture the other side of “Girlfriend,” this time, the speaker is the one being played by his boyfriend as he “spends [his] hours and [his] money on somebody new”... and let me just say, I don’t want to be on the receiving end of Omar’s scrutiny…

Changing tones almost entirely, though staying true to the EP’s theme of love, “Red Light” is the EP’s first ballad. 

I think this song deserves a whole article to itself, purely based on the lyricism. It’s beautiful, especially when combined with Omar’s strong, incredible vocal skills. 

The song talks about a feeling which is so universal, I think, discussing a middle ground which I think gets overlooked too often. It’s when you’re painfully still in love with someone, longing for their presence and the future you’ve planned with them, but can’t be with them, not because they don’t love you back, but because they aren’t the right person.

The whole relationship is on borrowed time, “we only had a couple days,” but is no less intense as it continues to come back to him, “I keep coming back to the red light”.

It’s only in a dream that they can continue to dance with one another…

Depressing, right? No worries though, Omar Rudberg loves to give us emotional whiplash, blessing us with my personal favorite (who deserves more love and attention, regardless of how popular she becomes) “Lose Me”.

The only song on the album written by Omar himself, “Lose Me” feels distinctly different. It’s so him, I knew he wrote it before even having to check the credits. It’s a song about finding confidence after a breakup. 

It’s become one of my crash out songs, one that I scream while driving my car the legal speed limit on my way home from work. 

Two lines speak to me most especially: “Do you think about what you left behind?” and “Unintentionally, you were setting me free”. I just love how he frames it not as him being the one who loses his former relationship, but it’s them. They lost him, not the other way around, and in the end, he’s better without them. 

It’s a perfect reminder to remember that you have so much worth, and if someone fails to recognize that, then it’s a bummer for them, not you. 

Two more left…are you still alive? Good, because time for my next favorite (seriously though, the run from Red Light to Wrong is actually insane) “Wrong”.

This might be my favorite Omar ballad ever, which I feel like is a big statement considering the songs he has in his arsenal (“Breathe”, “She Fell in Love in the Summer”, “Dum”), but I mean it with every fiber of my being. When this song came on, I think I died. I was on my way home from the club, and I forced my friend to let me listen to the EP in the car. Barely breathing after the mastery that is “Lose Me,” I full-on screamed when we reached the chorus—my friend can never look at me the same after that.

It’s just such a classic: the piano, his vocals, the lyrics ... so much so, it’s the only Omar song I’ve gotten my mom to listen to WITHOUT me begging her to (my great-grandmother even likes it). 

It tells a beautiful tale. A love that is strong and enduring, and most importantly, so secure. It’s the kind many of us wish we could have for ourselves, the kind people spend lifetimes searching for: “Fallin’ for you every day/ The feeling never goes away”.

I’m not ashamed to say that I absolutely bawled my eyes out when I heard it live for the first time.

And lastly, we have “Sabotage”.

It’s the final song of the album, and the current closing song of his shows, and I couldn’t imagine something more fitting. 

Playing off of “Wrong”, “Sabotage” also crafts a story of intense love, one that’s so important to him that he’s afraid he’ll “sabotage” it. 

While promoting this song, he made a collage of memories from the past year, including moments from the filming of Young Royals and his Cirkus show—a TikTok I refuse to rewatch because it should be considered emotional warfare. Jokes aside, the song is truly beautiful: “If I die in your arms/ Wouldn’t care about heaven at all”. 

Though I think what’s most striking is the final verse of the song where we get mostly raw vocals—it feels so vulnerable and authentic to Omar that I always find myself replaying the last few seconds of the song, feeling in awe no matter how many times I’ve already heard it.

The EP also includes a Spanish version of “Red Light”, “Luz Roja” as a bonus song, which I think is the perfect addition. Many fans, including myself, missed Omar’s blend of his languages, so this homage to his heritage with this version feels especially fitting.

With just eight songs, Omar reminds us who exactly he is as an artist: bold, vulnerable, and unapologetically himself. And if Every Night Fantasy tells us anything about what to expect from OMR2, we’re in for something unforgettable, so…buckle up, and stay tuned on Omar Nation!

“Thank you so so much for this year, one of the best years of my life!”

[Omar Rudberg via Instagram]

              ~@readingrudberry