Ellory Grace Turns Anxiety Into an Unwelcome Guest on New Single “Seventeen Years”

Ellory Grace is ready to show anxiety the door.

Ellory Grace "Seventeen Years" Cover (Credit: Myron McClure)

The emerging singer-songwriter officially enters a new chapter today, September 10, with the release of her latest single, “Seventeen Years,” a deeply personal track about reclaiming space from the thoughts and patterns that have occupied her mind for far too long.

Rather than simply writing about anxiety as something frightening, overwhelming or sad, Grace takes a different approach: She turns it into an unwanted guest who has overstayed its welcome.

After years of overthinking, replaying conversations and allowing small thoughts to snowball into something much bigger, Grace reaches a turning point. She may not be able to make anxiety disappear with the flip of a switch, but she's ready to stop letting it dictate what happens next.

The song's central message comes through loud and clear in the increasingly defiant chorus: “Outta my head, my anxiety… And I’m kicking you out.”

It's a sentiment that many listeners may recognize immediately. One thought can turn into ten. Something someone said hours, days or even years ago can suddenly start playing on repeat. And sometimes, as Grace puts it, “the quiet is getting too loud.”

But “Seventeen Years” isn't simply about defeating anxiety. At its heart, the song explores what happens when something has been part of your life for so long that you can't remember who you were without it.

“You would think, after all this time, I wouldn’t want to leave you behind,” Grace sings in the second verse, capturing the complicated relationship we can develop with the things we're desperate to escape.

That contradiction is what gives the song its emotional weight. Anxiety can be exhausting and unwelcome, but when it has been around for years, it can also become familiar.

For Grace, that idea started with a question.

“I don’t usually start with a melody. I start with a question. ‘Seventeen Years’ made me wonder what it would feel like to treat anxiety like someone who had been taking up space in my head for way too long and finally tell it, ‘You’ve overstayed your welcome. I’m showing you out.’”

That question ultimately became the foundation for the song.

Instead of simply describing what anxiety feels like, Grace wanted to explore the possibility of changing her relationship with it. The result is a song that feels less like a declaration that anxiety is gone and more like the beginning of taking back control.

“I think the funny thing about telling anxiety to get out is that you can’t just open a door and suddenly it’s gone,” Grace explains. “But maybe deciding it doesn’t get to run everything anymore is a place to start.”

“Seventeen Years” was written by Grace and produced by Alec Zeilon and Hunter Bennett, with the track recorded in Los Angeles.

The new single follows Grace's previous releases “In Between,” “Threads,” and “Girl I Buried,” continuing the perspective that has begun to emerge throughout her growing catalog. Her music frequently focuses on the thoughts, questions and seemingly small moments that stick around long after they happen.

For Grace, songwriting often begins with those lingering thoughts.

“If I can’t stop thinking about something, it usually turns into a song,” she says.

That approach also shapes the message she hopes listeners take away from her music. Rather than telling an audience how they should feel, Grace wants to create enough room for listeners to find pieces of their own experiences in her songs.

With “Seventeen Years,” she hopes that recognition might be as simple as hearing a lyric and thinking, Wait, I do that too.

Sometimes, realizing that someone else understands the experience of replaying a conversation, overthinking a moment or allowing one thought to become much louder than it needs to be can make the experience feel a little less lonely.

And while Grace is kicking anxiety out, she's not closing the door on new music.

The singer-songwriter is continuing to write and record, with another release planned for the last week of October. As her catalog grows, Grace says the songs will continue to connect through the same perspective: noticing the small moments that linger, following the questions they create and turning those observations into music.

“Seventeen Years” is available today on major streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube Music.

Listen to “Seventeen Years” here: Stream “Seventeen Years”

Follow Ellory Grace:

Instagram @ellorygracetell

TikTok @ellorygrace

YouTube @ElloryGrace