"Hey Siri" - Salem Ilese

So if this whole pop music thing doesn’t work out for Salem Ilese, I think she has a bright future in consumer tech journalism. Among such topics she’s covered in songs are Xbox, PS5, Crypto, Fortnite and today’s pick — Siri. Maybe her next album can include something about LLMs. Though “Hey Siri” came out in 2022, it’s a good pick for today given that Siri’s “Apple Intelligence” has been in the news this week. But unlike the Siri on your phone, Ilese’s “Siri” actually works. Zing! <straightens tie, looks in mirror: “Still got it.”>

In addition to being a technophile, Ilese is also a clever wordsmith able to turn a decent phrase. She has a knack for elevating the objects we interact with every day and connecting them to something more universal. Take the song “Ben & Jerry,” which features lyrics like “the only guys who treat me right are Ben and Jerry” and “So now I'm home, half-baked alone.” It may not be high art, but those are pretty good lines for a song about getting high and eating ice cream after a breakup. Who among us hasn’t downed a pint of Americone Dream in such sad situations? Sadly I don’t have the metabolism of a 25 year old pop singer.

The sentiment in “Hey Siri” is, admittedly, very sentimental to the point of being treacly. The construction of the song starts with banal questions you’d ask a virtual assistant about baking pie, saying thanks in Japanese and making paper planes. The questions build, however, into more existential ones, about loneliness and death. There is one subtle moment that I love in this song, which is when she asks “Hey Siri can you fix my broken heart, no one made it stop —” and at that moment the beat of the song pauses as she finishes “I just can’t get it to start.” It’s one of many nice touches that touch on our relationship with technology. Let’s ask Siri about that.

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