Why Did You Marry?

Album: How I Knew Her (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • Nataly Dawn was raised by Christian missionaries in a culture where women were expected to get married and raise children, putting any career ambitions on hold. In this song, she asks one of these hypothetical women the question, Why did you marry?

    "Part of growing up in a religious family is seeing everyone get married when they're babies," she told NPR. "It's always been very scary to me. Even as a young girl, I was never the type to fall in love with someone and think, oh, we're going to get married. I've always been very resistant to the whole idea just because I've seen so many people in the church get married really, really young. And I wish that there were more strong voices in the church and in the world who told girls that they didn't have to get married."
  • Nataly Dawn was single when she released this song, but had been dating Jack Conte, her Pomplamoose bandmate, for about six years. They got married in 2016.
  • Most of Nataly Dawn's music is with Pomplamoose, but her more personal songs she puts on solo albums. "Why Did You Marry?" appears on her album How I Knew Her and features Dawn on piano accompanied by a string section, which Jack Conte orchestrated. Conte also produced the track.

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