Hotly tipped as NME’s ‘Big 10’ ones to watch, London-based singer-songwriter Marie Naffah kicks off 2022 with the release of her highly anticipated new single, ‘I Want More’, out on 21st January. The single is the start of a string of releases leading up to the unveiling of her second EP, set for release this Summer. To accompany the track, Marie shares a bespoke website with her listeners – complete with handwritten lyrics, voicenotes, curated playlists and self-loving resolutions asking her fans ‘What Do You Want More Of in 2022?’.
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Marie’s unique ability to unite people around a shared experience is what truly sets her apart as an artist. Now more than ever, audiences crave deep and meaningful connections following a time where forging and maintaining relationships has been so difficult. Hungry to feel that magical connection again, last year Marie set herself an ambitious challenge when restrictions began to ease in the middle of 2021 by playing fifty shows in fifty days: ‘50/50: For the Love of Live’.
Not only did Naffah pull the feat off, the idea took her on a surprising journey around the UK – from playing for a sweaty audience working out at the gym, to serenading people queuing for their vaccines in Huddersfield, and performing at a refugee centre in Middlesbrough. Wherever she went, the sense of shared experience felt immediate.
The stories and people that Naffah encountered along the way ultimately inspired her to write new EP ‘Trains’. The EP’s lead single ‘I Want More’ unfurls cinematically, and is home to Naffah’s frankest songwriting yet. Enveloping the listener in her deeply soulful voice from the very first note, the track showcases Marie’s gift for telling vivid stories through her lyrics, accompanied by a driving beat that builds alongside the vocals.
Speaking of the track, Marie says, “Although the song initially screens as a love song, the song for me is actually about wanting to feel the magic of live music again. I wanted to get really intimate and into the nitty-gritty of that. The song is all about electricity, really – it’s a nod to all the cables and amps – it was about wanting to really buzz again. It’s about losing a spark and wanting to find it and refusing to settle for ‘fine’. I think the beauty of the song is that it can be applicable to so many other things – better relationships, better careers, taking more risks, more adventures. I want this song to dare people to dream, begging the question- ‘what do you want more of?’
Many of the singer-songwriter’s lyrics stem from journalled notes made on her various rail journeys around the country between shows. “The reflection time you get on long journeys is really important for me,” Naffah says. “If you get a window seat, it feels like you’re the star of a movie watching things go past. Windows have that kind of romance around travel and dreaming.”
Following her 50/50: For The Love Of Live tour, Marie was selected as one of NME’s ‘Big 10’, naming her as an artist to watch in the post-pandemic industry. Previous to that, she was named MTV’s Unsigned Artist of the Year before even releasing her first song. Following the release of her debut EP ‘Golden State’ which was released to wide-spread critical acclaim, Marie has also delivered her own TED Talk, toured the US, scored a movie for the BFI Female Film Festival, and played sold out shows at iconic venues including Omeara, The Lexington, Camden Assembly and the prestigious Ronnie Scott’s.
This new chapter marks a kind of musical arrival as the singer’s most assured work yet, and through starting with a dot-to-dot map of places she visited in an isolated year, the release unlocks private feelings – yearning, anger, longing, escapism – that we can all relate to. This, for Naffah, is why she makes music in the first place.
MARIE NAFFAH ONLINE
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