On her viral hit “abcdefu,” 17-year-old TikTok sensation Gayle launches an F-bomb tirade against a shady ex: “F—k you and your friends that I’ll never see again/Everybody but your dog, you can all f—k off.”
But she was worried that her foul-mouthed rant would piss off her grandmother. “When I played that song for my grandmother, I was so nervous,” Gayle told The Post. “And, you know, she told me that I got to say all the things at 17 that she never could. And that really put things into a different perspective [about] a woman being outspokenly angry at a man.”
After getting Grandma’s seal of approval, “abcdefu” has become a cathartic, liberating anthem for fed-up young women everywhere. The pop-punk single is No. 3 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100, building buzz for Gayle’s debut EP, “A Study of the Human Experience Volume One,” which arrives March 18. And just a few days later, the Dallas-born, Nashville, Tenn.-based singer — whose full name is Taylor Gayle Rutherford — will play two sold-out shows at Mercury Lounge on March 21 and 22.
The fiery rage in “abcdefu” was fueled by Gayle’s pent-up emotions after a real-life breakup. “I went through this relationship where I never let myself get angry. Even if they didn’t treat me well, I would ignore it and only focus on the good parts because I was committed to that person,” she said. “And then we broke up, and I was trying really hard to, like, be friends with him. I actually thought we got to a decent spot.”
But after Gayle found out that her ex was “talking s—t about me,” she was done playing nice.
“I was pissed,” she said. “It all just came out at once. And it kind of came out in an extreme way, like, ‘F—k you, and your mom, and your sister, and your job.’ Because there’s so many things I never told him I hated … All bets were off.”
Growing up, Gayle was a fan of CeeLo Green’s 2010 hit “F—k You” — or at least the “Forget You” censored version. “I actually remember I wanted to sing that song for a talent show,” she said. “I think I was probably around 9 or 10. My mom was like, ‘No! You cannot do that!’ But with ‘abc,’ I honestly … wasn’t particularly thinking about that song.”
While she started out singing country music, Gayle’s childhood hero was the Queen of Soul. “The person who inspired me to do music in the first place was Aretha Franklin,” she said. “I [discovered] her when I was around 7, and I just got hooked. I mean, I just loved her soul.”
Later, Gayle discovered female rockers such as Joan Jett and Courtney Love, but it was another influential woman — hit-making songwriter and former “American Idol” judge Kara DioGuardi — who would prove instrumental in her development.
“I would not be the writer I am without her,” said Gayle. “She has mentored me and my songwriting, and really inspired me to dig deeper and be more vulnerable in my songs and really fight for my artistry … It was really great to have a powerful, badass woman helping me and inspiring me.”
Now Gayle is part of a wave of young female artists, including Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo, who are being open about everything from mental health to sex — a topic she addresses on new single “ur just horny.”
“That’s just the reality of teenagers,” she said. “To acknowledge it helps people feel less alone.”
And Gayle — who graduated from high school in 2020 — doesn’t care about possibly being a bad influence on some children with “abcdefu.”
“I ain’t worried,” she said. “I’ll probably have a very cynical laugh if the kindergartners of the world are singing ‘A-B-C-D-E-F-U’ instead of the ‘ABCs.’”
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