It’s the last night of the annual Getty Family Reunion, located in a hotel in a secretive, remote area of the United States of America. The room is set up like a gorgeous gala, with twinkling lights, a DJ playing his set and the sprawling, global family it up like only Gettys can. Ivy Getty, the great-granddaughter of the oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty, is wearing linen polka dot pants from Gimaguas, a polka dot vintage scarf and a black tube top.
Her Chanel wedge heels are stomping on the dancefloor to a catchy beat and a familiar voice: her own. Forget summer, social insiders are all about Ivy’s brand new, debut song – a floozy, breathy pop bop which tells the tale of an enigmatic It girl. Familiar? ‘I made this song because it makes me so happy,’ Ivy says now.
‘I wanted something I could dance to, and there's nobody else better to dance with than your friends and family.’ You can imagine those tight-knit, beautiful Gettys going wild for her that first time. But they are hardly alone.
Checking in from the white sands of , director Damian Hurley tells , ‘Everything Ivy touches turns to gold. I was lucky enough to hear an early version of the song before release and haven’t been able to get it out of my head since.’ He goes on: ‘People LOVE the song; it’s played at every single party I’ve been to in Ibiza this past week.
The world has an insatiable thirst for sexy, camp, unapologetic this summer; Ivy is, as usual, ahead of the curve. I’m campaigning for her to release a whole album of One Hit Wonders.’ Back at HQ there was further fervour.
Our social media swan Alexander O’Loughlin describes the song as ‘undeniably a bop’. ‘It’s like Rebecca Black singing , but for every day of the week, month, and year,’ he says. Since its release, it has been played in 68 countries; the top five being the USA, UK, Germany, Canada and Italy.
Surely this pinpoints the chicest enclaves of Manhattan, , , Vancouver, Lago di Como...
Contrastingly to the frivolous, party vibe of , Ivy spent the late July launch night tucked away. ‘I was here in my apartment in and it was a very casual evening, which is what I like best – just being at home and watching a movie or . I was super nervous because I never put any of my personal projects out there.
I'm really pleased actually with the response.’ Indeed, she attends our Zoom call wrapped up in a blue fluffy dressing gown featuring cartoon cloud motifs, and a stripy towel wrapped around her wet hair. The bath in view in the background is lined with a sweet row of rubber ducks.
‘The foundation of me doing this had no expectation; I was doing it for my own artistic healing,’ she says in her Californian drawl, drawing out every syllable, completely serious. ‘It's something I've always wanted to do, and completing a goal that I ruled out previously was important to me. Because I didn't have expectations, everything's already exceeded them.
I'm really proud of it.’ She is clearly deeply introspective. ‘When I was a kid, I was such a performer,’ she says.
‘I was always doing performances for my family, constantly dressing up and playing different characters. But then there was this period that continued on into my mid 20s where I was confused. I was too nervous to perform.
I've been completing a lot of things I wanted as a kid now. I'm also healing that child in me and I feel like I'm becoming more confident and remembering who I am.’ There is context.
.. Despite her charmed life, as a young woman Ivy dealt with a lot.
She lost both her father, John Gilbert Getty (‘the coolest man to ever land on this planet’), and the beloved grandmother who raised her, Ann Getty, in 2020. Then, after a huge wedding officiated by Nancy Pelosi in 2022, it was reported that Getty had filed for divorce from the British photographer Tobias Engel in January this year. sets down a new marker in her life, which is, reading between the lines, a return to herself.
Speaking to her now, at 29, she says she is seeking out healing, health and happiness. ‘I really haven't been going out, that's a new part of my 2024 – and if I am seen somewhere, I was probably only there for five to 10 minutes,’ she says. The contrast of is all part of her duality: the bonafide It girl heiress, dancing and posing in Portofino and , Mykonos and Manhattan, enviably draped in Blumarine, Chanel, Margiela and Conner Ives – a look in her eye.
.. And the quiet search to retrieve her inner child and creativity.
It is reminiscent of Jennifer Garner in the 2004 film : Ivy is at her best in that space where imagination and reality meet. ‘I've been making music my whole life. I have so many albums that I've just never released,’ says Ivy.
‘I begged my grandma to bring me to the recording studio pretty early on. I would go to this camp that she was running every summer and at the end of the summer, me and all my friends got to record an album in a studio. We got to choose songs to cover and we would make music videos – both unprofessional and professionally done.
They were never for anyone to see and I am grateful for that, because starting with that intention has really helped me stay with it.’ Think Queen’s by The Veronicas, by Rihanna and Bonnie . ‘My friends are so freaking cool.
..’ she muses of their song choices.
She still sings, for example, into her hairbrush every day, wearing the same blue fluffy robe she meets me in now. ‘I sound so much better when I'm singing by myself versus in front of people,’ she says. ‘I always told my friends, I'm just going to rent out an entire stadium and perform by myself in it.
’ The early 2000s vibe is cemented with the song’s cover art, shot by her good friend and photographer Daniel Sachon. Ivy lies on a leopard print carpet at home, wearing blue eyeshadow, bubblegum lip gloss and a vintage ’s Secret slip dress, singing into that hairbrush. The hit shot was an accident: ‘We had to switch brushes midway through and they were fixing my hair.
I was laying on the ground while Daniel was checking the lighting with the carpet, and that was just an outtake – but it ended up being all of our favourites.’ It’s the summer of Charli XCX’s , Dua Lipa’s headliner, Sabrina Carpenter's , Taylor Swift’s Era’s tour and the return of ‘00s angst in the form of her UK support act Paramore. Ivy’s song has elements of all those things.
It also has big energy: reminiscent of her fellow heiress’s 2006 sugary, breathy, synthy album , led by the hit single . Ivy knows it very well – her favourite song from that album is To Ivy, who would have been hanging around the Getty mansion with her Motorola Razr and gassing over a rewatch of the nudist colony episode of , this comparison is a huge compliment. ‘I love that she has really defined who she is, and it feels like she's constantly having more of a glow up every year.
That's just a sign of a right direction. I want to cringe at looking at my past self, because that means that whatever I'm doing now is some form of growth. She's definitely an inspiration.
I'm really good friends with her sister Nicky. I just don't see Paris often because we live in different places – but she's really sweet.’ There are two other inspirations: her grandfather, Gordon Getty, a classical music composer and her father, John, who lived and breathed rock ‘n’ roll.
‘They inspired me to stick with it and not be afraid to do your own thing and make music that makes you happy, regardless of what other people may think about it,’ she says. The best lyric in , Ivy reveals now, was originally spoken by John. It is the last line of this block: Just the type to make them all wait / And to chose her drink just to match her dress / Silhouette see through the white lace / ‘My dad actually said that to me once and I thought it was so amazing, so I wrote it in my phone notes and I ended up using it in the song.
He said, “You should never, ever light your own cigarettes. If a man you are with doesn't do that, he’s not the one.”’ So who lights Ivy’s cigarettes now? ‘Honestly, probably me the most.
Hopefully, by writing this song and putting it out there, it's going to be a way of communicating to people that I don't want to do this anymore,’ she says wryly. She’s funny and cool; a version of the enigmatic girl in her song. It is refreshingly under-marketed and beautifully nostalgic.
Rupert Christiansen, ’s music critic, gets it. He tells me it’s ‘a harmless bop in a catchy fashionable in glitterball discos of the early 1980s. Pure cliché, showing no evidence of any remarkable vocal or songwriting talent.
’ And New York’s original It girl Plum Sykes gives it her seal of approval. ‘I can just hear Ivy's pop song being THE soundtrack to the Freshers week bops this fall at all the posh unis - , Exeter, etc - where no doubt lots of the students will know her!’ she writes to me. So here’s the .
.. The music is coming, to be filmed by Daniel Sachon with Ivy and her friends hopefully on the streets of .
Call me selfish but I hope Ivy Getty fails to be a one hit wonder. I hope that aspiration crashes and burns! I am ready for the fully realised dancing, singing, glitter cascade of society’s new favourite heiress and pop starlet – I want the music video..
. and I want the album..
