Jenna Raine’s “It Is What It Is” Plays Out Like a Bright, Sunny Day

Photo: Ashley Osborn

“It is what it is what it is what it is what it is what it is.”

It almost always feels like life is out to get you, especially in your twenties. We all have those days where nothing seems to go right—you sleep through your alarm, miss the bus, grab the wrong coffee order (with cow’s milk instead of oat milk), show up late to your meeting—and you just want to curl up in a ball, cry, and wonder what you did to deserve it all. As bright and sunny as ever, 19-year-old singer-songwriter Jenna Raine has released a new single, “It Is What It Is.” If there’s one thing you need to make yourself feel better when you’re having one of those days, let it be this song.

“It Is What It Is” is a gentle reminder that nothing is ever as big of a deal as it seems. Raine begins by listing off everything going wrong in her day, from getting two hours of sleep, to her clothes shrinking in the washing machine, to her car not working; it’s almost as if the universe has decided to test her. Despite this series of unfortunate events, Raine offers a new perspective—lemons make lemonade, flowers bloom in the rain, we’re all just specks on a floating rock, and all there’s left to do is make peace with it. In the chorus, she sings, “It’s kinda weird kinda fun, I'm a speck on a rock / You can laugh, you can dance with your stomach in knots / You can trip, you can slip, you can fall down again, again, again and again / It all works out in the end.” Perhaps we could all take a note from Raine’s book and choose to see the beauty in the little things from day to day and learn how to dance through the storm.

If a sunflower was transformed into a song, “It Is What It Is” is what I would imagine it would sound like. The production on “It Is What It Is” both accompanies and amplifies Raine’s positivity, using a mixture of claps, whimsical keys, and punchy acoustic guitars to create an infectious sound that you just can’t help but smile along to. It’s everything you could want and more. It’s happy, it’s energetic, and it’s a much-needed burst of serotonin. Above all, it’s Raine at her finest.

“It Is What It Is” is the first single released in anticipation of Raine’s EP, Big Dumb Heart, Chapter 2, set to release August 18.

Watch the "It Is What It Is" lyric video below: