Latest news with #Superlover
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Allison Russell prays for radical empathy and compassion in her and Annie Lennox's 'Superlover'
It's early April, and Grammy-winning Americana artist Allison Russell has flown to Toronto to guest judge on Canada's Drag Race in the country where she grew up. She's just released an updated version of 'Superlover,' a song from her Birds of Chicago days that she sang nightly with her Rainbow Coalition ensemble while on tour with Hozier last year. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. 'Tears of rage, tears of grief / Palestine, Israel to Tennessee / We need a superlove / Need a superlover,' Russell declares in the new version of the song she sings with artist, activist, and former Eurythmics front woman Annie Lennox. In the song's video, Russell gently plays the banjo while she and Lennox wrap their voices around the other's in a plea for understanding in these terrifying times. 'I think a superlover is anybody who leans into empathy and forbearance and compassion and understanding and forgiveness and nonviolence,' Russell says. 'The song has sort of unfortunately continued to evolve as we continue to have horrific [conflict].' 'I'm not just talking wars and invasions … but the violence that we're seeing right here at home. … There's an outright war happening on our trans siblings, health care being denied, people dying, actually, from that,' she says. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has targeted immigrants of all statuses. That is immediate and personal for Russell as she considers reentering the U.S. from Toronto. 'Our own nation's democracy is next to falling at this point. We have extrajudicial deportations. I'm at high risk for that. There's people like me with a green card and brown or Black skin who are being deported every day,' Russell says. 'Who knows if I'll be let back into the country when I come back, because having your documents is no longer a guarantee of that.' Dana Trippe 'Superlover' was released on Birds of Chicago's 2018 album, Love in Wartime. Russell has since released two solo albums, Outside Child (2021) and The Returner (2023). (The queer performer's ode to an early girlfriend who was also her escape from violence, 'Persephone,' from Outside Child, has become a touchstone for sapphic fans.) In response to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signing bills banning gender-affirming care for youth and restricting drag in her home state in 2023, Russell organized the life-affirming Love Rising concert to benefit LGBTQ+ causes. A year later, she won the Grammy for Best American Roots Performance for 'Eve Was Black.' Related: Along the way, she became a part of the 'Joni Jammers,' including Brandi Carlile, Lucius, SistaStrings, Celisse, and Lennox, who've supported Joni Mitchell's return to the stage in recent years. Russell brings her singular voice and clarinet solos to Mitchell hits. She and Lennox met at a three-day celebration of music and Mitchell at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington State in 2023. They were an instant match as musicians and activists. Lennox has advocated for women and children with HIV or AIDS for decades, and both women have been outspoken about the horrors in Palestine. 'I think that both she and I are sensitive empaths who've lived a fair bit of trauma each in our own way. I think we're aligned in the sense that we don't have an arbitrary line drawn between what is personal and what is political,' Russell says. Russell wasn't even a year old when Lennox had her first hit with Eurythmics' 'Sweet Dreams' in 1983. 'I've been listening to Annie Lennox my whole life. My mom loved her music. I can't think of one person who doesn't know 'Sweet Dreams' and dancing to it,' she says. They've since become chosen family. 'My daughter calls her Granny Annie,' Russell shares. Russell calls these times 'a global phenomenon of the rise of authoritarianism and fascism and far-right domination, hierarchical extraction, exploitation, violence, greed, hoarding,' adding, 'Obviously, it's terrifying when America does it because we have the dominant military in the world and a terrifying arsenal of weapons, and we've been doing a lot of damage already.' 'We'll do more, apparently, until there is a critical mass of enough of us being superlovers to say 'Enough,'' she says. Still, Russell sees solace and light in community building onstage and off. 'I believe we are capable of better. I know Annie also believes that, and to me, every day is an opportunity for harm reduction,' Russell says of hope. 'I'm not under any delusion that all violence will end and everybody will love each other, but there's ways that we can chip away at the severity of harm.' Watch the official "Superlovers" video here:
CBC
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
The Beaches' late-night party anthem, and 4 more songs you need to hear this week
Listen to new music from Allison Russell, Bambii, Sister Ray and more Image | The Beaches SYNTH Caption: The Beaches' new single, Last Girls at the Party, is a song you need to hear this week. (Meg Moon; graphic by CBC Music) Open Image in New Tab Songs you need to hear is CBC Music's weekly list of hot new Canadian tracks. Scroll down to discover the songs our producers are loving right now. Last Girls at the Party, The Beaches After taking home the 2025 Juno Award for group of the year, Toronto band the Beaches celebrated by releasing their first new single of the year, and a sneak peek at their upcoming third studio album, No Hard Feelings (out Aug. 29). Last Girls at the Party finds the women in their comfort zone: in the midst of a debaucherous night out, determined to party long after everyone else has gone home. "I'm not gonna slow down/ I'll never look as hot as I do now," singer Jordan Miller states upfront. The track is exuberant and so catchy that it'll likely stay in your head all night long, especially its shout-along bridge where they note how hours fly by when you're having fun ("It's only 1:00, right? It's only 2:00, right? It's only 3:00, right?"). Whether you're getting ready to head out for the evening or approaching last call, Last Girls at the Party is a new anthem for your night out playlist. — Melody Lau Junos 2025: full list of winners Superlover, Allison Russell feat. Annie Lennox Embed | YouTube Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. Annie Lennox and Allison Russell are powerhouse musicians and activists in their own right, but together? They stop time. From Russell's first banjo notes, Superlover stands tall and sombre, a plea for peace and unity. "Tears of rage, tears of grief/ Palestine, Israel to Tennessee/ we need a superlove/ we need a superlover," she sings on the updated version of a song she originally released in 2018 as Birds of Chicago, the duo with her husband, JT Nero. Lennox's inimitable voice, which hasn't been recorded in seven years, takes over on the second verse, before she and Russell lace together for a goosebump-inducing chorus. Superlover is meditative and thoughtful, a prayer for the non-denominational. "I don't know how to pray, so I offered up this song," Russell explained in a statement, ending with: "All children are our children. All of them. Everywhere. No exceptions. This song is a calling in. We are one human family. Equally." — Holly Gordon Wings, Sister Ray Embed | YouTube Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. Sister Ray (the folk project of Ella Coyes) has a voice that coils around each note before unfurling over gentle guitar strumming on Wings, the escapist track from their second album, Believer. "I know exactly which ride I'm gonna want to ride first when I arrive with you," they sing on the track's opening line, flowing over bristling guitar. Each word floats up, sounding untethered and free. "The first verse is from 2020, watching videos of Canada's Wonderland rollercoasters, trying to feel the rush of the descent locked inside," Coyes explained on Instagram, pinpointing that butterfly-inducing feeling of creeping toward something new. The writing is equal parts quirky and poetic: "I could tell that you were wasted even in a foreign language/ You stare at stars/ I call out constellations," they sing matter-of-factly, the uniqueness of their inner monologue shining through. Wings is rollicking Americana, with Coyes basking in the excitement of uncertainty. — Natalie Harmsen Bad Boy, Bambii Embed | YouTube Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. When a distorted voice bellows "It's time to feel the music," before the cacophonous drop on Bambii's latest single, Bad Boy, it's a warning for the adrenaline rush to come. The Toronto producer and DJ's first solo release of 2025 (she appeared on Shygirl's EP Club Shy Room 2 in February) teases an explosive new era ahead of her upcoming EP. It's not that Bambii has shied away from bold and brash sounds in the past (hear: Spit and Shh), but Bad Boy is in a world of its own. Clashing drum breaks and dark horns ricochet across the heart-rate inducing track, ready to overwhelm all your senses. The accompanying music video, which finds Bambii squaring up against three assailants, taps into the song's primal energy. — Kelsey Adams I Think I Do This, Sophie Noel Embed | YouTube Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. Unravelling unhealthy relationship patterns can be a painful experience, but Nova Scotia-based Sophie Noel has managed to wrap that work up in a perfectly timed spring bop. "I think I do this/ I think I fall out of love, and I barely notice," they sing charmingly on the chorus, after detailing a near panic attack and a last-ditch effort to save a relationship in a Tanya Davis-style flood of nuance. Produced by Mo Kenney, I Think I Do This dips a folk sensibility in pop sheen, and cements the artist formerly known as Yukon's Magnolia as a now East Coast voice to watch. This newest track is the second in a one-two punch of releases that dropped just ahead of Sophie Noel's Eastern Canada spring tour, following the previously released Hurricane. — HG
