In the music video for Cady Groves' debut single, "This Little Girl," the pint-sized pop singer enlists binoculars and various hiding spots to watch her boyfriend canoodle with another girl behind her back. Eventually, she duct-tapes the guy to a wall in her apartment. "This little girl is capable of murder, because you hurt her," Grove sings.
The seething sentiment doesn't exactly match the sunny pop-rock arrangement of "This Little Girl." But the single is catching on -- the video counts 48,000 views on Vevo since its Sept. 26 debut -- while unveiling the spunky 22-year-old Oklahoma native's real-life heartbreak story. After signing to RCA Records in May 2010 and moving to California, Groves became romantically involved with one of the songwriters working on her debut album. That is, until she discovered he had a secret girlfriend.
Devastated, Groves scrapped all the material she had previously written and decided to start anew. "It was hard to even write at that point," she says. "I just wanted everyone to leave me alone, to hide away. What was great was the label saying, 'We understand what's going on, but we see something that you can't see. There's a silver lining in you writing right now.'"