Whether you believe in astrology or not, you can’t use a pair of headphones this year without hearing a pop star talk about their Saturn return.
Ariana Grande And Kacey Musgraves both have recently released albums referencing the astrological event, which is loosely defined as the moment when the planet Saturn returns to the same place in the sky where it was when a person was born. But what happens during a Saturn Return, and why are all these people singing about it?
The first Saturn return usually occurs between the ages of 27 and 31. According to conventional astrological wisdom, it represents the time when a person finally reaches full adult maturity, with real challenges and serious responsibilities.
Saturn “returns” approximately every 29.5 years, meaning a person will likely experience the phenomenon three times. Western astrologers believe that the Saturn Return represents a major change: a person experiencing it is moving on to the next stage of their life. The first occurs when you are a young adult, the second occurs in middle age, and the third occurs near the end of life. (A potential fourth Saturn return would only happen if you lived to be about 114 years old.)
Musicians tend to focus on the first Saturn return, perhaps because many of them begin their careers very young. At 27, they have already seen it all.
Keep reading for a complete history of Saturn’s musical return:
Stevie Wonder (1976)
Wonder’s “Saturn” from his classic album Songs in the Key of Life isn’t explicitly about Saturn’s return, but the lyrics paint a picture of a place where life is slower and people are less impulsive. “Pack my bags, leave / To a place where the air is clean / On Saturn / It makes no sense to sit and watch people die,” Wonder sings. “We don’t fight our wars like you do / We hand over everything we use / On Saturn / It makes no sense to continue committing such crimes.”
And even though Wonder didn’t use the phrase “Saturn Return” on this song, he was probably starting his first one at the time of writing it: Songs in the Key of Life abandoned when he was 26.
Without a Doubt (2000)
For millennials of a certain age, the expression “Saturn Return” only brings to mind one thing: No Doubt’s fourth studio album, The return of Saturn. After becoming superstars thanks to 1995 Tragic Kingdomthe group reunited again for a darker exploration of young adulthood, spurred in part by singer Gwen StefaniSaturn’s own return. On “Simple Kind of Life,” she sings about her conflicting thoughts about becoming a mother and wife, while “Six Feet Under” is a deceptively spirited consideration of how birthdays are also a reminder of death . “Artificial Sweetener” actually directly references astrology, with Stefani singing “Saturn’s return / Assessing my life / Second guessing”.
In April 2024, Kanal exclusively said Us every week that he thinks the “coming-of-age” aspect of the Saturn Return is why he keeps coming back to pop music. “There’s this connection that we all explore in art, and things happen in cycles,” he explained. “And I can only speak to my relationship with things coming full circle and where we are now as a band for 37 years, it’s really a great place to be.” The way we can look at and respect each other as adults is just a beautiful thing. …I think maybe there’s this coming-of-age phenomenon that happens all the time, no matter how old you are or no matter what time in your life you’re at. Maybe that’s where we are.
REM (2001)
“Saturn Return” appeared on REM’s 12th studio album, Reveal. The song is sung from the perspective of a woman who has an epiphany about changing her life while working at a convenience store. “Easy to poke yourself in the eye / Harder to love yourself, harder to try,” the frontman sings Michael Stipewhich experienced its own Saturn Return about a decade earlier.
Katy Perry (2013)
Perry sang about his Saturn return on Prism track “By the Grace of God”, which begins with the lyrics: “I was 27, survived my return to Saturn / Long vacation didn’t seem so bad / Was full of secrets, locked away like Iron Mountain / Running empty, therefore running out of fuel.
The song also includes references to Perry’s divorce from Russell brandwhom she married in 2010. Brand announced their divorce in December 2011, when Perry was – no surprise here – 27 years old.
Adèle (2021)
Adele indirectly referenced her return to Saturn while promoting her fourth album, 30largely inspired by her divorce from her ex-husband Simon Konecki. During a concert at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles broadcast in November 2021, Adele wore earrings shaped like the planet Saturn.
She also discussed her Saturn return in a cover story with Vogue at the time, saying, “That’s where I lost the plot.” …When this happens, it can turn your life upside down. It shakes you a little: who am I? What do I want to do? What really makes me happy? All these things.
Angie McMahon (2023)
The Australian singer-songwriter released a track called “Saturn Returning” after a three-year hiatus from music and inadvertently started a wave of Saturn references that lasted for several months. “I’m gonna let Saturn come back to warp me / I just want to be wide awake when I’m 40,” she sings.
“Your Saturn Return is like a teacher, and this song is a conversation with myself through a time of important endings and beginnings, where compassion and hope have been the best antidote to my own mental health issues ” McMahon said. rolling stone in June 2023. “The greatest lesson I have had in this chapter of my life is the value of a gentle, loving relationship with myself, no matter what.”
MS MR (2023)
The duo released their final single as a group – aptly titled “Saturn Return” – in September 2023. “You’re my Saturn return / We orbit and burn / With one foot out of the grave,” read the lyrics in the second verse. .
Dreams (2023)
Canadian singer-songwriter Dream released his first album, Return of Saturnin October 2023. The closing track, also titled “Saturn Return,” reflects on the bittersweetness of aging, with lines like “We look kindly on the past / Why were we so determined to grow up fast?”
Paramore (2023)
singer of Paramore Hayley Williams called the group’s sixth album, That is why, their moment of Saturn return. “Because there are certain things in our career that seem to come full circle, that almost feel like we’re getting our own Saturn return as a group,” she said. Help in November 2023. “It’s a bit early, I think we would have another seven years or something, but at the same time there is more openness and perhaps more possibilities than ever for the Things continue and take directions that suit them.” we may not even know it yet. We’re going to be done with the contract that was signed that basically made Paramore our job and our livelihood – it’s going to be done this year and there’s a lot of things about it that seem really, really exciting.
SZA (2024)
SZA’s “Saturn” debuted a few years after the singer made her own Saturn comeback. The track is about feeling stuck in a rut after a cycle of painful experiences. “This must be what hell feels like/There must be more, there must be more,” she sings. “I’m sick of my head / Intrusive thoughts, they paralyze / Nirvana is not as advertised / There must be more, I’ve been here before.”
Ariana Grande (2024)
Grande’s seventh album, Eternal sunincludes a “Saturn Return Interlude” narrated by a YouTube astrologer Diane Garland. “When we are all born, Saturn is somewhere – and the Saturn cycle lasts about 29 years. That’s when we’re going to wake up and smell the coffee,” Garland explains on the track. “If we were just relying on our intelligence or if we were relying – you know, just floating around, Saturn comes and hits you on the head and says, ‘Wake up! It’s time for you to become more aware of life and discover who you really are.
Grande, who turned 30 at the time of recording Eternal sununderwent many changes during his return to Saturn, including his divorce from Dalton Gomez and his subsequent new romance with Ethan Slater.
Kacey Musgraves (2024)
Musgraves was 35 when she released her sixth album, Deeper well, but the album’s title track references the previous decade of his life. “My Saturn has returned,” she sings. “When I turned 27 / Everything started to change.” Musgraves turned 27 in 2015, the same year she released her breakthrough album, Competition material. The following year, she met Ruston Kellywhom she married in 2017. In 2018, she released Golden hour, which won several Grammys and made her a superstar. She and Kelly filed for divorce in 2020, when she was about to turn 32 — and therefore at the end of her Saturn return.
Whether you believe in astrology or not, you can’t use a pair of headphones this year without hearing a pop star talk about their Saturn return.
Ariana Grande And Kacey Musgraves both have recently released albums referencing the astrological event, which is loosely defined as the moment when the planet Saturn returns to the same place in the sky where it was when a person was born. But what happens during a Saturn Return, and why are all these people singing about it?
The first Saturn return usually occurs between the ages of 27 and 31. According to conventional astrological wisdom, it represents the time when a person finally reaches full adult maturity, with real challenges and serious responsibilities.
Saturn “returns” approximately every 29.5 years, meaning a person will likely experience the phenomenon three times. Western astrologers believe that the Saturn Return represents a major change: a person experiencing it is moving on to the next stage of their life. The first occurs when you are a young adult, the second occurs in middle age, and the third occurs near the end of life. (A potential fourth Saturn return would only happen if you lived to be about 114 years old.)
Musicians tend to focus on the first Saturn return, perhaps because many of them begin their careers very young. At 27, they have already seen it all.
Keep reading for a complete history of Saturn’s musical return:
Stevie Wonder (1976)
Wonder’s “Saturn” from his classic album Songs in the Key of Life isn’t explicitly about Saturn’s return, but the lyrics paint a picture of a place where life is slower and people are less impulsive. “Pack my bags, leave / To a place where the air is clean / On Saturn / It makes no sense to sit and watch people die,” Wonder sings. “We don’t fight our wars like you do / We hand over everything we use / On Saturn / It makes no sense to continue committing such crimes.”
And even though Wonder didn’t use the phrase “Saturn Return” on this song, he was probably starting his first one at the time of writing it: Songs in the Key of Life abandoned when he was 26.
Without a Doubt (2000)
For millennials of a certain age, the expression “Saturn Return” only brings to mind one thing: No Doubt’s fourth studio album, The return of Saturn. After becoming superstars thanks to 1995 Tragic Kingdomthe group reunited again for a darker exploration of young adulthood, spurred in part by singer Gwen StefaniSaturn’s own return. On “Simple Kind of Life,” she sings about her conflicting thoughts about becoming a mother and wife, while “Six Feet Under” is a deceptively spirited consideration of how birthdays are also a reminder of death . “Artificial Sweetener” actually directly references astrology, with Stefani singing “Saturn’s return / Assessing my life / Second guessing”.
In April 2024, Kanal exclusively said Us every week that he thinks the “coming-of-age” aspect of the Saturn Return is why he keeps coming back to pop music. “There’s this connection that we all explore in art, and things happen in cycles,” he explained. “And I can only speak to my relationship with things coming full circle and where we are now as a band for 37 years, it’s really a great place to be.” The way we can look at and respect each other as adults is just a beautiful thing. …I think maybe there’s this coming-of-age phenomenon that happens all the time, no matter how old you are or no matter what time in your life you’re at. Maybe that’s where we are.
REM (2001)
“Saturn Return” appeared on REM’s 12th studio album, Reveal. The song is sung from the perspective of a woman who has an epiphany about changing her life while working at a convenience store. “Easy to poke yourself in the eye / Harder to love yourself, harder to try,” the frontman sings Michael Stipewhich experienced its own Saturn Return about a decade earlier.
Katy Perry (2013)
Perry sang about his Saturn return on Prism track “By the Grace of God”, which begins with the lyrics: “I was 27, survived my return to Saturn / Long vacation didn’t seem so bad / Was full of secrets, locked away like Iron Mountain / Running empty, therefore running out of fuel.
The song also includes references to Perry’s divorce from Russell brandwhom she married in 2010. Brand announced their divorce in December 2011, when Perry was – no surprise here – 27 years old.
Adèle (2021)
Adele indirectly referenced her return to Saturn while promoting her fourth album, 30largely inspired by her divorce from her ex-husband Simon Konecki. During a concert at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles broadcast in November 2021, Adele wore earrings shaped like the planet Saturn.
She also discussed her Saturn return in a cover story with Vogue at the time, saying, “That’s where I lost the plot.” …When this happens, it can turn your life upside down. It shakes you a little: who am I? What do I want to do? What really makes me happy? All these things.
Angie McMahon (2023)
The Australian singer-songwriter released a track called “Saturn Returning” after a three-year hiatus from music and inadvertently started a wave of Saturn references that lasted for several months. “I’m gonna let Saturn come back to warp me / I just want to be wide awake when I’m 40,” she sings.
“Your Saturn Return is like a teacher, and this song is a conversation with myself through a time of important endings and beginnings, where compassion and hope have been the best antidote to my own mental health issues ” McMahon said. rolling stone in June 2023. “The greatest lesson I have had in this chapter of my life is the value of a gentle, loving relationship with myself, no matter what.”
MS MR (2023)
The duo released their final single as a group – aptly titled “Saturn Return” – in September 2023. “You’re my Saturn return / We orbit and burn / With one foot out of the grave,” read the lyrics in the second verse. .
Dreams (2023)
Canadian singer-songwriter Dream released his first album, Return of Saturnin October 2023. The closing track, also titled “Saturn Return,” reflects on the bittersweetness of aging, with lines like “We look kindly on the past / Why were we so determined to grow up fast?”
Paramore (2023)
singer of Paramore Hayley Williams called the group’s sixth album, That is why, their moment of Saturn return. “Because there are certain things in our career that seem to come full circle, that almost feel like we’re getting our own Saturn return as a group,” she said. Help in November 2023. “It’s a bit early, I think we would have another seven years or something, but at the same time there is more openness and perhaps more possibilities than ever for the Things continue and take directions that suit them.” we may not even know it yet. We’re going to be done with the contract that was signed that basically made Paramore our job and our livelihood – it’s going to be done this year and there’s a lot of things about it that seem really, really exciting.
SZA (2024)
SZA’s “Saturn” debuted a few years after the singer made her own Saturn comeback. The track is about feeling stuck in a rut after a cycle of painful experiences. “This must be what hell feels like/There must be more, there must be more,” she sings. “I’m sick of my head / Intrusive thoughts, they paralyze / Nirvana is not as advertised / There must be more, I’ve been here before.”
Ariana Grande (2024)
Grande’s seventh album, Eternal sunincludes a “Saturn Return Interlude” narrated by a YouTube astrologer Diane Garland. “When we are all born, Saturn is somewhere – and the Saturn cycle lasts about 29 years. That’s when we’re going to wake up and smell the coffee,” Garland explains on the track. “If we were just relying on our intelligence or if we were relying – you know, just floating around, Saturn comes and hits you on the head and says, ‘Wake up! It’s time for you to become more aware of life and discover who you really are.
Grande, who turned 30 at the time of recording Eternal sununderwent many changes during his return to Saturn, including his divorce from Dalton Gomez and his subsequent new romance with Ethan Slater.
Kacey Musgraves (2024)
Musgraves was 35 when she released her sixth album, Deeper well, but the album’s title track references the previous decade of his life. “My Saturn has returned,” she sings. “When I turned 27 / Everything started to change.” Musgraves turned 27 in 2015, the same year she released her breakthrough album, Competition material. The following year, she met Ruston Kellywhom she married in 2017. In 2018, she released Golden hour, which won several Grammys and made her a superstar. She and Kelly filed for divorce in 2020, when she was about to turn 32 — and therefore at the end of her Saturn return.