SINGLE REVIEW: ABIGAYLE OAKLEY - CALL YOUR GIRLFRIEND

In the UK, it's fairly safe to say that anyone competing on The Voice is only temporarily delaying the return to their day job at Tesco's. Looking at the list of ten years of winners is a testament to the abject failure of the format. It is also worth remembering that these programmes are entertainment shows not talent shows despite what they may claim.

Our friends in the US though seem to have much more success, even with runners up - Thunderstorm Artis who finished 3rd, five years ago forinstance is to hit the main stage at Country Calling in the UK later in the year and having seen him in Nashville he is going to gain many admirers. Let's also not forget that Cassadee Pope and Craig Wayne Boyd have won the series and played in the UK.

All of which brings us to Abigayle Oakley, another artist who wowed us in Nashville and provided one of the best singles of 2025 in "Press 3". She was the stand out talent at a Bluebird Cafe Songwriters round and she is now to be found working her way through the current series of the US Voice 2026.

She has a wealth of her own excellent material but the format of the show declares that you have to perform a cover and Abigayle's was Robyn's "Call Your Girlfriend". I'll admit the original is a little off genre for us though as it's had 105 million plays on Spotify alone, someone obviously likes it, but does the electro beat version really successfully convey the meaning of the song?.

Abigayle with just her acoustic guitar and some echo effects, truly extracts the pathos out of the situation of a girlfriend trying to explain to a boy how to let his current girlfriend down gently to a point it quite believable.

"Call your girlfriend

It's time you had the talk

Give your reasons

Say it's not her fault

But you just met somebody new"

It's done with a sense of feeling and compassion that the original could never hope to emulate, just listen to the way Abigayle navigates the second line below extracting every decibel of melody.

"Tell her how you never meant to hurt no one

Then you tell her that the only way her heart will mend

Is when she learns to love again

And it won't make sense right now but you're still her friend"

Here at #TEAMw21 we wish her well on her journey but do her a bigger favour and play "Press 3" or ask her to release the quirky "Alien Invasion". You will not be disappointed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd6lFlcvqXo