Tommorow at 7.30pm Celeste will release her new single ‘Little Runaway‘ on all major platforms. The video will be directed by Sophie Jones, who also directed the visuals for ‘I Can See the Change‘, and styled by the up-and-coming Ella Lucia. Celeste posted on her Instagram today to share a snippet from the video:
For Celeste fans, 2020 has been a good year. The London-based singer has released several singles in the past few months. One was a cover of Edith Piaf’s signature song, ‘La Vie En Rose’. This showcased the full range of her voice, while her lyrical song-writing skills shone through in ‘Stop This Flame’ and ‘I Can See the Change’. ‘Stop This Flame’ is a foot-tapping anthem for independent women, fitting for Celeste whose meteoric rise to fame has seen her win awards and gain recognition across the board. In 2019 she was awarded the Brits’ Rising Star Award and this year won BBC Music’s Sound of 2020.
yesterday was surreal I won the BBC Sound of 2020 … I have a NEW song out called “Stop This Flame” and my biggest show yet sold out see you in April if you got tickets I can’t waitttpic.twitter.com/GcZ8HqIh9H
— Celeste (@celeste) January 10, 2020
Celeste has always had a connection with music. She spent her childhood in LA, where she drove around her grandfather’s cherry-red jag listening to Aretha Franklin. Aretha became one of her biggest artistic inspirations. In her interview with the BBC she spoke of her appreciation for Franklin’s ‘raw delivery and emotion‘ as well as her ‘storytelling‘ prowess.
Perhaps this is why Celeste’s own music feels so real and confessional. Annie Mac, BBC Radio 1 host, described the singer’s music as ‘personal‘ and said that she had received ‘countless emotional texts from listeners who have had to sit in their car and loose themselves to her song ‘Strange’ before carrying on with their evening‘.
Unsurprisingly, Celeste draws on personal experience to write her songs. One of her 2019 creations, ‘Father’s Son’, is an ‘emotional ode to absent fathers‘. Celeste’s own father passed away when she was 16, and this jazzy soulful song is an examination of loss and genetics. ‘Maybe I’m an echo…with the same eyes we both see’ she softly sings, followed by ‘Oh I’m nothing like you’. The power of this song lies in its complex exploration of how those who have passed live on in their children, reminiscent in its content to Mike Skinner’s powerful ‘Never Went to Church‘.
There is no doubt that Celeste’s new release will deliver truthful story-telling in jazzy tones, so don’t forget to check it out at 7.30pm tommorow.
