The Hand - A song written by Annabelle Dinda

 

Annabelle Dinda, a song writer, wrote The Hand. Released on November 7th, 2025,  the song speaks about what it's like being a woman compared to a man in terms of creativity. Her song has reached millions of listeners already, most of which agree with her message.

(Annabelle Dinda playing her song before release on YouTube, taken from her TikTok page.)

Her song speaks of when men share their creativity, whether that also be in song form or something else, they are viewed as "heroic". While when women post their creative ideas, it's drowned out or underappreciated while also acknowledging the internal and external pressures of speaking out that women face.

Annabelle is a sophomore at Gallatin, studying storytelling through the lens of music and language. She had been writing and publishing original songs from a very young age. She doesn't have much about her background.

However, she has written a lot of other songs. A couple of other highly liked songs are Logging Field and Good Things. Her Spotify mentions her having more than a million monthly listeners as well.

Many songs that would be considered "feminine rage" often comes from those who work in the punk genre or even alternative and pop. However, this song was written by someone who mainly sticks to the folk genre. 

For example, more people may know good 4 u by Olivia Rodrigo or Nightmare by Halsey than those who know "The Hand" because those two songs are on the modern pop/alternative which is a lot more common than folk. 40% to 83% of people listen to pop while only about 15% listened to folk.

This matters because throughout history, there have been many times when women's voices were drowned out or considered unworthy to listen to. Also how she branches out of her comfort zone in her music to voice her opinions on this.

The target audience seems to be mainly people who relate to gendered-expectation dynamics. However, other people may find this song enjoyable, or even reach young audiences to teach and/or make them aware of how life can be.

If anyone were to get offended over this song, it may be certain types of men. Annabelle's use of the lyrics "Every time a guy writes a song, he's a cowboy, a sailor..." gives those men a type of heroic archetype. While her other lyric, "Every time I open my mouth, I think wow, what a loud noise" and "Still on the soapbox, just hoping I seem underwhelmed" is her speaking of how she feels uncertain about speaking out and wanting to seem like she isn't overreacting.

Based on how the song has skyrocketed since release, I'd say it's a good song and will not be forgotten in a week. This may be her best piece of music she has released as it currently has over 9 million streams compared to her other releases. 

Most articles talk about how well written her song is and how well she performed it. In this article, Herapath mentions how "The lyricism of this song is very well done" however, they also add "The balance between the instrumental and her vocals is very off to the point it at many times feels like her vocals are being drowned out." While understanding the frustration, many think the drowning out her voice was intentional. To further prove that women have to speak twice as loud to be heard.

Annabelle Dinda uses TikTok to promote and share her music before releasing it. Her reputation is growing as more and more people find this song and maybe listen to her older ones. I personally have listened to her songs many times and shared it to my older sibling only to find out she had already heard it as well and enjoys it herself. 

I look forward to any other music Annabelle Dinda puts out there and hope to see her continue to grow.