About — Griefcat

/ɡrēf-kat/

Griefcat: From the German word Kummerspeck or in English “grief bacon,” the weight you gain from emotional eating or, in this case, the cat you get after a breakup.

ABOUT: Rising musical comedy duo Griefcat emerged in 2019 as the brainchild of Annie Nardolilli and Louisa Hall, two songwriters from Washington, DC whose shared wit and undeniable musical chemistry made their collaboration feel like fate.

Now established as modern, genre-hopping troubadours unafraid of sonic experimentation, Griefcat builds on influences from Tenacious D to Dolly Parton and beyond, infusing the result with a healthy dose of campiness and a talent for tongue-in-cheek sociopolitical commentary — a winning combination that has earned them the backing of a diverse and growing fanbase, a standing ovation from Simon Cowell, over 150 million social media views, appearances on The Kelly Clarkson Show and Broadway, and acclaim from The Washington Post and BroadwayWorld.

Their third full-length album, Dirty Laundry, was released in 2025, with new music, videos, and live performances continuing at a rapid pace.

Annie Nardolilli

Singer, Songwriter, Guitar

Louisa Hall

Singer, Songwriter, Ukulele

CONTACT GRIEFCAT

VIDEOS

PRESS HIGHLIGHTS

WASHINGTON POST

D.C. duo Griefcat makes funny music fit for the times

It took four years of running into each other before they formed Griefcat in 2019 — a musical partnership born out of a love for making good music that featured good laughs, too.

Griefcat’s 2020 self-titled debut includes songs like “Loving You Is Like Eating Chipotle,” about a fruitless relationship. “Loving you is like going to the mall but everything is a size too small,” they sing with a squeaky guitar. The song is a list of sad, funny similes about loving someone who doesn’t deserve it. Then there’s “Uhh … Where’s My Car?,” in which Hall and Nardolilli harmonize about not being able to find a parking spot and how scary it is to be a woman at night wandering around looking for her car — before the last line of the song: “Oh, wait, I, uh, I took the subway.”

“The music got significantly funnier once we got together. Before, we were just creeping in. But then being a duo, we’ve been able to become just much bolder as we support each other,” Hall says. Going bigger and bolder together has worked out well for Griefcat.

‘That’s What People Need Right Now’: Local Band Griefcat Combines Rich Harmonies With Lyrics That Make You Laugh

Annie Nardolilli and Louisa Hall show up to meet me in identical green velvet dresses. The two are always matching — from their earrings all the way down to their shoes — and most of the time that attire includes sequins. But their lovable theatricality doesn’t just manifest in what they wear: it’s also evident in their music.

Nardolilli and Hall are the brains behind Griefcat, a D.C.-based singer-songwriter duo with a flair for musical comedy. (The band’s releases include “Egg Roll” and “I Just Want To Get Inside (Your Bank Account)” …) The two have been making waves in the D.C. music scene since 2019 — some of their videos have reached 1 million views on TikTok — and were recently nominated for five Wammies, the D.C. region’s local music awards.

Griefcat, who jokingly refer to themselves as The “Tenacious Double Ds” of D.C., will release a new album on April 19. And if you want a chance to catch them before then, they’re performing a set of shows this spring, starting with one Thursday at Pearl Street Warehouse.

The two are like a couple, finishing each other’s sentences, as they tell the story of how they met. Although they’re both from the D.C. area, they come from very opposite backgrounds: Nardolilli is a Mormon and former sheriff’s deputy while Hall is a lapsed Catholic and a career tech employee.

Griefcat Set To Finally Release Album

They've been compared to Flight of the Conchords, Tenacious D, Norwegian duo Ylvis, and Garfunkel and Oates by fans but Griefcat brings their own unique voice to the genre. The nine tracks on Late Stage Capitalism range from flat out hilarious to unexpectedly thought provoking, each with a unique sound, beautifully blended harmonies, and brilliant lyrics all with an unpredictable twist.

The musicianship stands out on its own too; traditional instruments abound but you will also hear slide guitar, ukulele, trumpet, trombone, violin, and cello peppered throughout the album.

Says the duo, “We are overjoyed to finally share these songs with the world! We've been working on this album since 2020, and it has been a labor of love to bring our full vision to fruition.” Late Stage Capitalism explores how unbridled capitalism has invaded every facet of modern life, from workplace politics to interpersonal relationships, and even our most private moments.

From “Pooping at Work” to Love and Money: Griefcat Unpacks “Late Stage Capitalism”

Are you looking for music that doesn’t fit into a specific genre? Music that has a message but is written and performed in a beautiful way? Let us introduce you to Griefcat! Annie Nardolilli and Louisa Hall, the masterminds behind Griefcat, are a in matching outfits who together create music with an unpredictable twist. They’ve been compared to Flight of the Conchords, Tenacious D, Norwegian duo Ylvis, and Garfunkel and Oates by fans.

But if you ask Annie to describe their sound, she says “We’re like if Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton, and Bo Burnham met up at an Olive Garden and wrote a song while eating unlimited breadsticks. Does that make sense? Probably not.” Annie Nardolilli is a Mormon and former sheriff’s deputy from Arlington, VA. Louisa Hall is a long-time lapsed Catholic and a career tech employee. From Alexandria, VA and now resides in Reston, VA.

The duo met at a DC-based variety show in 2015 and were the only musicians in a group of comedians performing that night. “Louisa played a song called ‘Barista Boyfriend,’ about a barista she had a crush on, and I played a song called ‘Hot Park Ranger’ about a park ranger I had a crush on,” says Annie. “We both realized we liked hot people with jobs!” They felt an immediate kinship. After continually running into each other in the singer-songwriter scene in DC and admiring each other’s work, they joked backstage at the 9:30 Club in 2018 about how they should form a band together.