Dearly Beloved

Album: released as a single (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is a tribute to Kiesza's late friend Alice, who died in 2015 following a battle with leukaemia. The white electric guitar that the singer plays in the music video also honors her fallen pal.

    "When my best friend Alice passed away nearly a year and a half ago, her white electric guitar was passed along to me," Kiesza said. "In her memory and because I love her so much, I promised myself that I would not let it sit in its case collecting dust. I was going to play the hell out of it, just as she would have done. So that's what I'm doing."

    Adam Agati, a professional guitarist and Alice's boyfriend, taught Kiesza how to play electric for the song and the rest of the album.
  • Alicia Lemke, better known as Alice and the Glass Lake, was Kiesza's best friend. Her death coincided with the Calgary native still supporting her 2014 debut Sound of a Woman and thoughts of coming up with a follow-up had to be set aside for a while.

    "Basically, she passed away as I was beginning to write my next album," Kiesza, told Billboard magazine, "and it was really a challenge to get back into writing again, through this immense tragedy and the weight of the grief I was feeling. That's why it took me a little bit longer to get back, to get my music out. I didn't want all my music to be sad. I had to let myself heal for a bit."

    She recorded this song while Lemke's father was visiting her in the studio.

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