If you grew up quoting School of Rock at the dinner table, brace yourself: Katie the bassist is all grown up, fronting her own band, and she has some things to say about being everyone’s favorite and still going home alone. Rivkah Reyes is back with “Miss Congeniality,” a confessional, crunchy, Y2K-flavored alt-pop banger that lands somewhere between a diary entry and a text you absolutely should not send at 1 a.m. Out now via an accompanying video shot in a queer and trans Bushwick boxing gym, it’s the most self-assured chapter yet in Reyes’ steady evolution from child-star sideperson to front-and-center indie pop force.

Produced by frequent collaborator Blonder (Anna Shoemaker, Ryn Weaver), the track leans into what Reyes affectionately calls “sapphic doomcore situationship bangers.” Translation: power chords, pageant energy, and a sly self-awareness that makes the sting land harder. “It’s like I’ve been shapeshifting into whatever version of myself feels the most likable in the moment,” Reyes explains. “It’s that pageant energy of being everyone’s favorite but still not actually being chosen. I’m very aware of the pattern while it’s happening, which is where the humor and the sting come from.” The result is bratty, high-energy alt-pop with crunchy guitars and a flicker of indie sleaze — polished on the surface, quietly unraveling underneath.

The music video, co-directed by Reyes and Katie Colwell and edited by Jill Blutt, leans all the way into the song’s namesake. Filmed at OutBox, a queer and trans boxing gym in Bushwick, it follows a bruised Reyes into the ring in a pink dress and a tiara — Sandra Bullock by way of busted lip and smeared eyeliner. “There’s something so special to me about the way Sandra Bullock plays this woman who’s trying to survive inside a version of femininity that doesn’t totally fit her naturally,” Reyes says. “I liked the idea of taking this super glossy, hyperfeminine world and roughing it up a little. Busted lip, smeared makeup, sweat, chaos. That contrast felt really true to the song.”

It’s a fitting visual for an artist who has spent her whole life shapeshifting in public. Born in Chicago and playing guitar by age four, Reyes shot to fame as Katie in the 2003 comedy classic School of Rock before stacking up screen credits in Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls (Sundance 2023), Netflix’s The Merry Gentleman, SZA and Keke Palmer’s One of Them Days, and her own queer horror short Gianna opposite Margaret Cho. Through it all, music has been the constant — from the Rolling Stone-cosigned “sick” to “another vice” and “Big League Chew.” With “Miss Congeniality,” she’s no longer the girl in the band. She’s the headliner, the prom queen, and the underdog in the ring, all at once.

Watch the official video for “Miss Congeniality” here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Rivkah+Reyes+Miss+Congeniality

Press play, throw a few jabs, and let Rivkah Reyes remind you that not being for everyone is its own kind of crown.