Floating Parade

Album: Small Changes (2024)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Floating Parade" is a sonic daydream, a tune that feels like sinking into a warm bath on a cold day. Over a bed of soulful bass and dreamy strings, Michael Kiwanuka invites us to escape the all-encompassing madness for a while. It's a song about using your mind to transport yourself from an uncomfortable situation to a place where everything is calm and beautiful.

    "My plan and my intent for this song is that you can be transported while the listens to it somewhere, amazing somewhere," Kiwanuka told BBC Radio 1's Jack Saunders. "That's your utopia. And that's where I wanted to do the sound of this record. The sound of this is to create that sort of feeling of utopia and peace."
  • Michael Kiwanuka co-wrote the song with the track's producers, Danger Mouse and Inflo. The pair have served as the singer's co-songwriters and producers since his second album, Love & Hate, in 2016.
  • Released on July 10, 2024, "Floating Parade" was Kiwanuka's first music in three years since 2021's "Beautiful Life" from The Netflix documentary Convergence.
  • Kiwanuka debuted "Floating Parade" live on June 29, 2024, during his Glastonbury Festival set on the Pyramid Stage.
  • The New Orleans-based director Philip Youmans directed the video. He previously worked with Kiwanuka on his "Beautiful Life" clip.
  • "Floating Parade" topped the Billboard Adult Alternative Airplay chart. It was Kiwanuka's first #1 on any Billboard chart.

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