Marie Naffah, Celine Love, Fox Gunn & Viia join forces to celebrate International Womxn's Day
08 March 2022
Newsdesk
London singer / songwriters Marie Naffah, Celine Love, Fox Gunn and Viia join forces to celebrate International Womxn’s Day with their tear-jerkingly powerful rendition of Aretha Franklin’s iconic ‘Natural Woman’. All proceedings from the single will go to LOOK UK’s South Asian female support group.
For those who have followed the work of critically acclaimed artist Marie Naffah, they’ll know that the empowerment of visually impaired people, especially as it relates to music, is something extremely close to her heart. Marie’s grandmother became blind as a result of AMD (age-related macular degeneration), and since then she has campaigned to raise awareness for visually impaired musicians. In 2015, Marie teamed up with a group of six blind and visually impaired musicians in order to record her track 'Blindfold' which formed part of a short documentary that seeks to raise awareness and understanding for the issues surrounding visual impairment and sight loss. Watch the documentary below. Marie also delivered a deeply moving TEDx talk entitled ‘Making Music With The Blind'.
Spearheaded by Marie, she enlisted the talents of fellow London musicians, Indie-R&B singer-songwriter Celine Love, indie-pop singer-songwriter Fox Gunn and alt-pop singer-songwriter Viia. Brought to life at the iconic Premises Studio in Hackney, the song was arranged by Marie and Ian Barter and recorded all one day. With each artist taking a verse, they bring their own individual flare and energy to the track, culminating in a glorious four-part harmony. The result is a truly magical and effortless blend of each artist's vocal style and a contemporary take on the Aretha classic.
Speaking of the collaboration, Marie says “International Womxn’s Day is a day of celebration! It seemed the perfect opportunity to team up with some amazing female artists, pay homage to the musical powerhouse that is Aretha, and raise some money for this important cause. With life opening up again, I just want to seize every opportunity for in-person collaboration. The womxn I worked on this with were incredible; talented, gracious, humble, hilarious, you name it.
I chose Aretha’s ‘Natural Woman’ because it celebrates the authenticity of womxn. It’s less about making someone feel pretty or special - it’s about making them feel ‘natural’. It’s like saying ‘thank you for making me feel myself’, and to me, that couldn’t be a better message on International Womxn’s Day.”
