[Intro - bright synth riff, electronic claps, drum machine kicks in] [Verse 1] She comes home from work at half past hate Kicks her shoes off, dinner's running late Kids are asking things, the dishes never end She smiles and says "mummy's fine" and then At a quarter to collapse she opens up her phone Finds a corner of the kitchen she can call her own Earbuds in, world out, lesson on the screen Thirty minutes building something no one's ever seen [Verse 2] Her mum says "why can't you just be happy where you are" Her partner says "another course" and stares off at the jar Where they keep the money for the holiday they'll skip Because she reinvested in another membership But she's not wasting money, she's investing in the exit The one nobody sees because she hasn't built it yet but Every night she's one step closer to the door That opens to a life she's never had before [Pre-Chorus - mood shifts, vulnerable underneath] They think she's playing Think it's just a phase But she's been quiet-building Every single day And one day they'll see it wasn't games [Chorus - massive, bright, infectious but listen to the words] Girls just want to get paid Not permission, not praised Just the money in the bank that we made With our own hands, our own brains, our own late nights Girls just want to get paid Tired of asking, tired of waiting for the raise That never comes from a job that forgot our names Girls just want to get paid, is that so strange [Verse 3] She used to dream about the corner office Used to think the ladder was the way Gave them fifteen years of early mornings And they gave her a cupcake on her birthday Passed over for the bloke who started last year Smiled through the meeting, cried in the car Came home that night and said "that's it, I'm done Being someone else's rising star" [Verse 4] Now she sells digital templates at midnight Makes more per download than her hourly rate Her boss doesn't know she's building an empire From the same laptop she uses to update their database And yeah, her nails are done and her hair's a mess And she laughs too loud and she overthinks the rest But underneath the glitter and the chaos and the fun Is a woman who decided she was done being outrun [Pre-Chorus] They think she's dreaming Think she'll settle down But she's been quiet-building And she's not making a sound Till the day she walks out and doesn't turn around [Chorus] Girls just want to get paid Not permission, not praised Just the money in the bank that we made With our own hands, our own brains, our own late nights Girls just want to get paid Tired of asking, tired of waiting for the raise That never comes from a job that forgot our names Girls just want to get paid, is that so strange [Bridge - lone synth, raw vocal, the gut punch drops] Can I be honest for a second Under all the laughing and the dance I'm terrified I'm thirty-seven, forty-two, fifty-one Depending on which one of us you ask And we're starting something new When the world says we should have figured it out by now But here's what the world doesn't know We're not starting We're pivoting We've been working our whole lives Just never for ourselves Until now [Build - synths rising, beat returning, energy climbing] [Final Chorus - full production, every voice, celebration with tears in eyes] GIRLS JUST WANT TO GET PAID Not rescued, not saved Just the freedom that we built and we made With our own hands, our own brains, our own beautiful mistakes Girls just want to get paid And we'll laugh the whole way there if that's okay Because joy and ambition aren't mutually ashamed Girls just want to get paid We just want to get paid And we will [Outro - synth riff returns, bright, fading with warmth] Is that so much to ask Apparently So we stopped asking And started building Pay us
