Solstice

Album: Indigo (2022)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The singer-songwriter-composer Dana Al Fardan has an unusual and inspiring backstory. She's from Qatar, a small country in the Middle East with a history of male guardianship that prevented many women from pursuing careers in music. A symphonic musician, she released her first album, Paint, in 2013, and in 2018 became Cultural Ambassador of the Qatari Philharmonic Orchestra. If you've flown Qatar Airways, you've heard her music: it's played when passengers come on board.

    In 2022 she released Indigo, with songs performed by the orchestra. "Solstice," a track from the album, she says "represents the space we find within that allows our light to shine through. It's the light that liberates the infinite glow we all hold, 'the light that freed the sun.'"
  • The Indigo album carries a concept of how color affects our emotions. It's based on the book Theory of Colours, first published in 1810 by the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Each song on the album is designed to convey a different mood, just as various colors do in the visual spectrum.
  • The song was arranged by the Syrian violinist MAias Al Yamani and produced by the London-based Nico Dalla Vecchia, known as SINK.
  • The music video is intentionally abstract, showing Dana Al Fardan and members of the orchestra performing the song with overlays of color and other distortions. Each single from the album comes with this kind of visual representation, which is designed to give space for personal interpretation. It was directed by Ramy Dance at Common People Films in London.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Mike Love of The Beach Boys

Mike Love of The Beach BoysSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer/lyricist of The Beach Boys talks about coming up with the words for "Good Vibrations," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Kokomo" and other classic songs.

Jim McCarty of The Yardbirds

Jim McCarty of The YardbirdsSongwriter Interviews

The Yardbirds drummer explains how they created their sound and talks about working with their famous guitarists.

American Hits With Foreign Titles

American Hits With Foreign TitlesSong Writing

What are the biggest US hits with French, Spanish (not "Rico Suave"), Italian, Scottish, Greek, and Japanese titles?

He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss): A History Of Abuse Pop

He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss): A History Of Abuse PopSong Writing

Songs that seem to glorify violence against women are often misinterpreted - but not always.

The Police

The PoliceFact or Fiction

Do their first three albums have French titles? Is "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" really meaningless? See if you can tell in this Fact or Fiction.

Laura Nyro

Laura NyroSongwriting Legends

Laura Nyro talks about her complex, emotionally rich songwriting and how she supports women's culture through her art.