“Checkmate” by Jena Rose

The chorus of Jena Rose’s “Checkmate” is based on the motif of the singer using chess, as implied by the title, as a metaphor for the state of her romance with the addressee. Many readers will recognize the term “checkmate” as being derived from that game. And what it generally points to is the concept of having your opponent in a position where they can no longer make any moves, thus meaning that they are defeated.

So the reason Jena is telling her “darling” that “(he’s) in checkmate” is because she has now reached the point of no return as far as their relationship goes. That is to say that she has endured his detrimental-to-romance mannerisms for long enough. So now, to his chagrin, he is being dumped. 

Also, the vocalist is further enlightening the addressee to the fact that his apologies are falling on deaf ears, as there is no chance for reconciliation. So basically, she is using the word “checkmate” to more or less taunt him for being cutoff.

Facts about Jena Rose and “Checkmate”

Jena, who was 20 years old when this song was dropped on 11 June 2021, is a singer from Texas. Her first official single, “Take a Breath”, came out in 2015. And even though Checkmate does not have any chart history to speak of, the track did perform extremely well in social media circles.  

Additionally the music video which, as with the song itself, was inspired by a chess-based Netflix show called The Queen’s Gambit, hit on MTV.

Jena, who is partly of Cuban parentage, released this song despite not being signed to a “traditional major label”.

Jena co-wrote this track with Nick Furlong. And its producers are Luke Shrestha and Simon Jay.