Is Your Love Big Enough?

Album: Is Your Love Big Enough? (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • Lianne La Havas was born in London, England to a Greek father and Jamaican mother. La Havas' accomplished multi-instrumentalist father taught her the piano and the basics of guitar and she wrote her first song at the age of 11 and fell into performing two years later when she auditioned for her school's choir. However, she did not learn to play the guitar properly until she was 18-years-old. Around the same time La Havas got serious about writing her own songs flitting between jazz, folk and soul.

    A friend of La Havas', singer and songwriter Allan Rose, introduced her to Paloma Faith and she sung backing vocals on tour for the British singer. Rose also introduced her to other musicians who assisted La Havas in the recording of her first demos and on the strength of them she signed to Warner Brothers, spending two years developing her songwriting skills. This pleading track is the title song of her debut album.
  • La Havas found writing about her personal life and most deeply felt emotions for Is Your Love Big Enough? a cathartic experience. "That's why I do it," she told Spinner. "It's my way of talking about it and getting it off my chest. I can't help but remember how I was feeling when I wrote the songs. That's a good way of channeling your emotions into a good performance."
  • After working with singer-songwriter Matt Hales in London, La Havas came to New York to rekindle that writing relationship. This song serves as a tribute to her time in the Big Apple. "We came to Brooklyn a year ago and wrote three songs, the first ended up being my single 'No Room for Doubt,'" she explained to Spinner. "The final track that was written on that trip was 'Is Your Love Big Enough?' and it's about how much fun I had in New York and how I found myself. It was literally that - just having the space to think and be alone somewhere like the Lower East Side."
  • Although many of the tracks on Is Your Love Big Enough? reference the downside of relationships, the album title is taken directly from her own happiness in creating the music. "I thought the album should have a positive title that didn't involve any of my boyfriends because I'd been writing and I'd been productive and creative and it was making me happy," she told Spinner. "I had my whole self with me again and I felt complete again."
  • Is Your Love Big Enough? was named iTunes Album Of The Year in 2012.

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