MIRROR by Jenni Smith

“Mirror” actually started as fiction.

My mum has always compared me to other brunettes in the most hilarious way - “Jenni, you look so much like Anne Hathaway” or “Emma Watson” or “Keira Knightley” - all incredibly beautiful women, but I’ve never quite seen the resemblance. I know it’s a compliment, but it got me thinking: if people think we all look alike, what are the chances of someone moving on with a person who looks suspiciously like their ex?

Quite likely, right?

“Mirror” captures the spiral of seeing your ex’s new girlfriend and realising she feels… familiar. The same features. The same colouring. The same places. The same stories being retold. It’s that unsettling mix of ego, insecurity, curiosity, and wondering whether she’s truly different, or just a reflection of you.

At the time I wrote it, it was completely fictional. And then… life happened.
Apparently I need to be careful about the stories I turn into songs, because they have a strange habit of coming true.

Underneath the humorous storytelling, “Mirror” explores identity, comparison, and the natural desire to feel irreplaceable. It’s playful on the surface, but there’s a quiet vulnerability running underneath - questioning whether someone is moving on, or simply recreating what they lost.

The 25-year-old singer-songwriter happily embodies the girl-next-door trope with her romantic, personal song-writing style being a perfect match for the pop-country genre. She can lay claim to a couple of notable achievements: taking out Songwriter of the Year at the 2018 NZCMA Entertainer of the Year Awards, and 2024’s song ‘T-Shirt’ landing at #3 on the Official NZ Singles Chart.

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