She

Album: Sing To The Moon (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • "She" is not based on any one person – it is a composite. It is about the idea, emotion, and feeling of desperation. Mvula told Songfacts: "I'm fascinated by the idea that as human beings, even in that ultimate sort of desperation - loneliness or isolation or coming to the end of yourself - there could be something as small as hope, as small as a mustard seed. It could be minute, but it's enough to sustain you for however much longer. When it feels like you have nothing left, there's always something. For some people it's God, for others it's relationships, or whatever."
  • Laura Mvula spent years dabbling in music without taking the plunge and devoting herself to it full time. She played some solo gigs, earned small writing commissions and taught music to kids whilst working as a supply teacher and receptionist. It was the divorce of her parents that kickstarted Mvula into pursuing music as a career, her muse fueled by the uncertainty of her family life. This autobiographical song was the breakthrough. She told Mojo magazine: "I remember the afternoon I wrote 'She.' The beauty of it, the personal beauty, is I know how necessary that was for me. It was the first thing I'd done that I recalled listening back to and feeling, This really moves me."
  • The dam burst after Mvula wrote this song and next came the other tracks that comprise her debut EP, She as well as the single "Green Garden." Mvula told The Guardian how the songs she wrote were borne from the anguish she'd experienced after her parents split. "These songs have been a fantastic therapy for me," she revealed. "I needed to write them. They evoke the emotions of being lost or left, or loss in general. Things are really complicated, very painful and deep, and the music has been part of the process."

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