Holiday

Album: Star Girl (2021)
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Songfacts®:

  • This upbeat love song opens StarGirl Mixtape, the first full-length project from Kingston-born reggae artist Naomi Cowan. She collaborated with London-based producer Jamie Rodigan on the Caribbean-flavored track, which finds her in a romance that feels like a holiday. Cowan told the Songfacts Podcast how the song came together:

    "I listened to this riddim (we call it 'riddims') and I felt like I was on holiday, that's the only way I can think of it. And from there is where I started to craft the song. What it felt like was like when you go on a date and the time flies by so fast that you're like, 'Oh my God, we've been talking for four hours.' Or you've been hanging out for so long and you didn't realize it's been six hours - that's kind of the emotion I got from the instrumental."
  • Cowan shared her thoughts on a holiday kind of love with the Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner. "Personally, the song is a reflection of the kind of love and romance I want to see manifested in my life," she said.

    "I feel like I see so many people get together because it 'makes sense' on paper, but in spirit there's no authenticity, no vibrancy or joy. Unconditional love does take a lot of work, time and patience. I feel like there should always be a magical, ethereal, pure energy to it that you and your partner can return to when times get tough. So when I heard the beat, I kinda imagined disappearing into a different dimension with someone. You know when you spend time with someone and the time passes so quickly because y'all are so into each other? Yea, it's a holiday."
  • While Cowan's "Paradise Plum" video shows her bicycling through the streets of Jamaica on a bicycle, the "Holiday" visual features her hitting the pavement in Brooklyn, New York, on foot and on roller skates.

    "Naomi and I agreed we wanted an uplifting and natural feel to the video," director Yoram Savion told The Gleaner, "so we conceptualized the whole story to take place within a couple blocks of the same BedStuy neighbourhood. We of course wanted to show Naomi's style, and energy and roller-skate skills."
  • Despite multiple wardrobe changes, the shoot wrapped up quickly. "I really have to give credit to the director because he was just very good on moving fast," Cowan told Songfacts. "He was like, 'We got the shot, let's move on.' That was really nice, but he wasn't too much of a perfectionist and that just comes with experience I guess."

    She continued: "But my favorite part about it was that everyone that was on that set, they were in it for the good of the overall project. There weren't a lot of egos involved. Everyone just brought their A-game, and it felt so genuine, and that made it a lot of fun. 

    One of the things I use to gauge whether or not I was happy with anything is I look at how I felt at the end of the day - and we actually went out that night. That's how I know the energies were high because even though we started at 7:00 a.m., we still kept going, and I think that was indicative of the positive energy that was around us."
  • This features Jamaican DJ Walshy Fire of the dancehall group Major Lazer.

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