Zoe Ko has spent much of her recent work turning glamour into something messier than the fantasy it promises. On her new single, “Can a Girl Dream Big?”, the New York-raised, Los Angeles-based artist pushes that tension further, confronting what happens when ambition begins to feel less like possibility and more like exhaustion.
Released through Big Loud Rock and produced by Frequency, whose credits include Eminem, Tate McRae and Ashe, the track wraps Ko’s unease in a polished, high-energy rock backdrop. The title initially sounds like a declaration of intent, but the song complicates that idea by questioning how much chasing a dream can demand from the person doing the chasing.
The visual extends the song’s push and pull between movement and escape. Blurred highway footage gives the video a restless pace before giving way to surreal moments of stillness. Ko appears in shimmering gold angel wings, waiting for what she describes as a “spot in Heaven,” an image that turns the glitter surrounding her into something considerably heavier.
Ko has been direct about the personal circumstances behind the record. “This song is one of my favorite songs I've ever written. This past year, now year and a half, was truly the lowest point in my life,” she said. “I really struggled with my mental health and happiness. I was experiencing suicidal intrusive thoughts and questioning my career, friends, and everything really.”
That context changes the weight of the song’s central question. Rather than treating dreaming big as an uncomplicated pop mantra, Ko uses it to interrogate the cost of constantly reaching for the next achievement.
“I ask, ‘Can a girl dream big?’ because I truly do wonder in my darkest times if I'm dreaming for too much in this life. Funny enough, all of those thoughts have fully gone away now. And now that it's out there, it doesn't have to haunt me anymore.”
The release follows “Party Girls Don't Cry” and “I'm Wearing All Black”, continuing a run in which Ko has increasingly folded the contradictions of nightlife, image and emotional fatigue into her music.
Her 2025 EP, still not ur girlfriend, helped expand that audience, with “DIRT” emerging as one of the project’s most visible tracks. Ko has since taken that material onto increasingly prominent stages, including Lollapalooza in 2025 and the GRAMMY U Soundstage during GRAMMY Week 2026 in Los Angeles.
After spending the summer touring with Ella Red, Ko will return to the stage this month as support for Lauren Sanderson. She is scheduled to perform at New York City's Gramercy Theatre on October 14, followed by a October 29 appearance at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles.
For an artist building a persona around the collision of rock-star confidence and emotional disorder, “Can a Girl Dream Big?” gets closer to the source of that friction. Ko is still dreaming big. This time, she is also willing to say what the dream has cost her.
